Coming Out
by JenGambale
Summary: Much to the Cullens' surprise, the vampire kind has revealed itself to the world. However, those vampires are a lot different from the cold ones, so the Volturi decide that their own kind should stay hidden. Three years later, when they move to Shreveport for the winter, they discover that a local vampire called Bill Compton has vanished... POVs by Bella Cullen & Sookie Stackhouse
1. Prologue

**A/N: **Originally, this FanFiction was only one chapter long. This chapter, to be precise. But after a while I wanted to make a full FF out of it, so I started plotting. The first 10 chapters are short. Like, really short. Just wanted you to know beforehand. ;) But they get longer, don't worry. ;3

Enjoy your reading! And please leave reviews! It only takes a few seconds! ;D

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**Prologue**

We just couldn't believe it. Twenty minutes ago, we had brought Renesmee to her bed in the cottage. Now we were standing and sitting in front of the TV screen back in the house. None of us were able to look away, we all were too shocked by the news headlines that were now running all over the world.

We had been exposed. The vampire world wasn't a secret any longer. Speaking on the news was a vampire woman that was nothing like us. She didn't have the pale-white skin nor the red or the golden eyes. We all had doubted that she was a vampire at all. Until she had shown the audience her fangs.

She hadn't disappeared from the screen to come back later with exposed fangs, no, we and everyone else in the world would have looked through that right away. No, she had extracted them right in front of us, without an editorial cut.

I finally managed to turn my eyes from her while she explained why they told the world now that they existed. I took a look at Edward. He was still staring at the screen, eyes and mouth wide open. I had never seen him this surprised. I moved my eyes from him to Alice and Esme. Esme looked totally stunned. Alice, on the other hand, looked furious. I could easily tell, why. She hadn't foreseen this in any way. Why, I didn't know.

Carlisle met my gaze when I looked at him. He looked as shocked as I felt. I went to stay with him. "How is this possible?" I asked. "How come there are vampires out there that are so different from us?" The others listened up now, too. Carlisle stayed quiet for a while. Then he said, "I don't know. But I bet the Volturi don't like this at all."


	2. Chapter 1: Confusion

**Chapter 1**

We had been summoned. Or rather, Alice had been summoned and the rest of us had come along. Aro was furious. I'd already been scared of him when he was nice and friendly and I still had been human. Now I was a vampire like him and I was terrified. He was walking up and down across the whole room, interrupting Alice every two seconds.

I changed nervous looks with Edward. We had left Nessie with Charlie and the pack. I just couldn't bear the imagination of her being in the Volturi headquarters. Especially not when the three leaders were as upset as they were now.

"What do you mean, you haven't seen this?" Aro asked Alice for the 100th time now.

If Alice was human, then I would say she looked like she could burst into tears any second now.

"I can't explain it, either!" Alice said loudly. She clearly was angry with her power right now.

"Aro, none of us expected this," Carlisle tried to calm the Volturi down. "You can't blame Alice for it."

Still angry, Aro walked up the stairs of the podium and let himself fall into his throne.

"What confuses me is that we've never heard of these vampires," Caius said.

"Well, they're classical vampires, they're only up in the night," Emmett said. All heads turned. The bear-like vampire shrugged. "Just saying."

"That still doesn't explain why we've never met one of those," Marcus said.

"Maybe they don't know about us, either," Edward said and took a step forward. "Think about it, Aro. If you were one of those, always trapped inside during the day, only able to come out at night, would you think there could be any other kinds of vampires out there? Vampires that are able to come out during the day?"

Aro's expression became thoughtful.


	3. Chapter 2: Sookie

**Chapter 2: Sookie**

It had never been this quiet in _Merlotte's Bar & Grill_. All eyes were stuck on the small TV screen above the bar. Andy Bellefleur still held his bottle of beer on his lips, as if he was about to drink from it.

Sam and I stood next to each other and watched the lady on the news who had said just a minute ago that vampires existed and that she was one of them. I was absolutely paralized and I felt my shield slip from me. _Did that woman just say she's a bloodsucker? – Holy Crap, that bitch has fang teeth! – Oh, god, and these… creatures have been living among us all this time?_

I flinched. Sam touched my shoulder. "You okay?" I nodded. "Just too many thoughts." I raised my gaze to the woman on TV again. "The reason why we're exposing ourselves now is because we want to become part of the human society. Live beside each other in peace."


	4. Chapter 3: True Blood

**Chapter 3: True Blood**

I exchanged looks with Edward. He nodded slowly and took my hand and the two of us walked through the double-doors into the throne-room of the three Volturi leaders.

Aro, who was alone in the room apart from the two guards, looked up.

"Bella, my dear! Edward!" he said. "What can I do for you?"

"We have a request," I said carefully.

"No."

I blinked. "I didn't say anything yet."

"But I know what you're going to ask," Aro said. "You can't go home to Renesmee."

"But-!" I tried to object, but the Volturi raised his hand and I fell silent.

"Let me explain," he demanded. "I know, I have no right to keep you here and I know, you miss your daughter. But I need you here. All of you. Until Jane and the others are back with information, we need to stay together."

I was angry. It had been almost a month since the vampire news and we had been kept here in Volterra ever since. Three weeks ago, Jane, Alec, Felix, Dimitri and a few other vampires of the Volturi coven had left Italy to get as much information about the "night vampires" as possible. For the first time in… well, I guess, forever, the Volturi seemed helpless. They had been trying to protect our secret for so long and had never even imagined what they should do if their effort should fail one day.

A sound from outside distracted us. We looked at the double-doors as they opened and Jane and Alec came in. "We have news," the angelic vampire said. "Go call for the others," Aro ordered.

Not even five minutes later, the whole Volturi coven, Felix, Dimitri and the others, who had arrived at the same time, included, my family and all the other vampires who had come to search for advice from the Volturi, were gathered in the large room.

"Jane and I just came back from Japan," Alec opened the report. "It's incredible. Look what the scientists there have managed to come up with."

He nodded to Jane who opened the bag they had with them and took out a red bottle. Immediately, the smell of blood got into my nose.

Half of the attendants began to hiss.

"Now, now," Aro said and waved calmingly with his hand. Then he stood up and walked down the steps to join Jane and to take a closer look at the bottle.

"What have you found, my love? What is this?" he asked.

"It's called _True Blood_," Alec answered in Jane's stead.

"It's synthetic blood," Jane said.

A murmur went through the room.

Alec took another bottle out of the bag and began walking the room, holding it up so everyone was able to see it.


	5. Chapter 4: Decision

**Chapter 4: Decision**

„We have decided."

The room was quiet in an instant. All eyes went up to Aro, Caius and Marcus.

"Felix, Dimitri and the others have gathered the following information: The other vampire kind possesses no knowledge whatsoever that our kind exists. That is why we decided that our kind stays hidden. We will not expose ourselves. If they want the humans to know that they exist, then fine. The humans know now that there are vampires. Classic vampires. They have no idea about us. And we'd like to keep it that way."

"But what about our hunting habits?" a vampire I didn't know asked. "I'm not like _them_." He pointed at us. "I can't refuse human blood."

Marcus snarled. "Then you will have to be more careful! Like we all do!" he snapped. "Make sure, the humans you're hunting don't see you coming! And make sure that none of the other vampires catch you in the act!"

The foreign vampire hissed but stayed quiet.

"All of us have to be extra-careful," Aro said. "Especially with the police. They know now what they have to look for if they find a drained body. A few of you should maybe consider to start hunting animals like the Cullens. Or try this… _True Blood_."

He put on a playful smile. "I think I will give this synthetic blood a go." His expression became serious again. "You all may leave now. Spread the word among our kind and tell them the new rules. They are valid from this second on. Guards, you may open the doors!"

The second the double-doors were open, all the vampires vanished in the speed of light.

My family and I were the only ones left.

Aro nodded at us. "Thank you. All of you," he said. "I know, our secret will probably be safest with you, since you don't hunt humans. Just make sure that not another human, like our lovely Bella used to be, comes along and finds out what we are."

He winked at me.

"Go now," he continued. "And give my love to your lovely daughter."

As my husband, our family and I left Volterra side by side, to head back home to Forks, I couldn't help but to think that maybe, _maybe _I could start to like Aro now.


	6. Chapter 5: Bill?

**A/N:** What "True Blood" fans of course notice in this chapter is, that it's the last scene of season 2. I took the shameless liberty to use the original lines that were used in this scene in the show. I hope you can forgive me for that. Everything that is not dialogue, I did word myself. This chapter is basically the written literary version of the season 2 ending.

And, of course, it takes place about three years after the official coming out news of the vampires.  
For me, it was important that this scene is in the fanfiction.  
I hope you enjoy your reading! :)

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**Chapter 5: Bill..?**

„Miss Stackhouse… will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

I gulped. Speechless, I looked at Bill who watched me with his hopeful smile.

"That is," he continued, "assuming that last night didn't scare you off weddings for good." He giggled, but when he saw that my face still hadn't worn off its stony expression, his smile dropped.

I felt my eyes slowly filling with tears but couldn't take them off Bill.

His face became worried. "Sookie." His voice broke. "Say something."

Suddenly, I was able to move again. I slowly shook my head, gathering the right words in my mind. "I've dreamed of this since… I was a girl," I said, blinded by my own tears. "And, in my dreams… I always say yes."

"Then it ought to be easy," Bill said playfully.

"Then why can't I say it?" I asked both him and myself, while my face became an expression of gloom. "My heart's flying around in my chest, I can't even think straight… My life's inside-out. With all that's happened… I'm not sure about anything." My voice became hard. "I don't even know if I'm human!"

Bill looked puzzled. "What?" he said.

My breath speeded up.

"Maybe I am some kind of freak, I've met one other person in the world like me and who even knows where he is?" My voice broke. "And what happens… when I grow old? And weak? And you're still the same one then!" I couldn't fight the tears anymore.

"Sookie…," Bill said calmly while I started to sob. "I don't care about any of that. I want you just as you are-"

"But I'm not even sure what I am!" I yelled.

Now, Bill was speechless. Slowly, he let himself fall to the back of his chair. He didn't look at me.

"Then you're saying no?" he asked quietly.

"No, I'm saying..! I..! I don't know what I'm saying, I…" I took a breath and then grabbed my purse. "I need a minute to clean myself up, I'm sorry..!"

Hastily, I stood up and rushed to the ladies' room. After I closed the door, I let myself lean on it for a minute and waited until my breath came at a normal pace again.

Then, I slowly walked to the mirror to take a look at myself. I was a mess. My look fell to the ring in the box that was still in my hand. I took it out and slowly put it on my left ring finger. I looked up to take a look at my reflection. The ring was beautiful.

And I finally noticed that it looked beautiful on me.

Suddenly, a small rush of happiness flowed through me and it grew even bigger and bigger by second. I started smiling.

And then I knew my answer.

Two minutes later, I rushed back to the dining room of the restaurant, smiling from ear to ear. "Yes!" I said loudly as I reached the entrance and walked down the few stairs. "Yes, Bill Compton, I will marry you!"

I stopped dead. The room was empty. "Bill..?"


	7. Chapter 6: Three Years Later

**Chapter 6: Three Years Later**

„Nessie! Are you ready?" I called.

"Just a sec, Mom!" my daughter yelled back.

Edward giggled.

"What is she doing?" I asked him.

"Saying goodbye to Squishy-poo", he grinned.

Indeed, I could smell the landlady's little poodle that Renesmee had become such good friends with. A few seconds later, my daughter hopped out of the front doors of the apartment building we had lived in for the past three months.

"Ok," she said, once she reached us, "now I'm ready."

Smiling, Edward and I climbed in our cars, he in his silver Volvo S80 and I in my brand-new red Ferrari 599. Nessie joined me in my car.

"I totally love this car," she said as I drove after Edward out of the drive-way. She got out her iPod and plugged it in the fitting iPod-connection. "So, Ma'am, is there anything in particular you'd like to listen to?" she asked with a smart grin on her face.

"You pick something," I answered. "And how many times have I told you not to call me Ma'am!"

She giggled and pressed a few buttons. A chilly indie-rock number started to play. I took a look at the display to see what song it was. It said "The Book I Write" by the band Spoon.

We drove out of Chicago and headed west.

Because Nessie aged so quickly, we had to change towns every two or four months.

By the end of her first year, she had had the physical age of a six-year-old. Right then, her growth process had started to slow down a few paces. But of course, it still was very fast. She was four years old now, but had the body of a twelve-year-old.

Every time we changed towns, we would head back to Forks first, to check in with Charlie and the pack. The pack counted 24 wolves now. The only children left that weren't shape-shifters yet were the ones that weren't teenagers yet.

I always felt a little sorry when I thought about that. New kids becoming shape-shifters whenever a vampire came to the Olympic Peninsula was quite unfair, I thought.

We didn't talk much during the 27-hour-drive. We took several breaks, so Renesmee could eat something on the way and stretch her legs. She also slept a lot.

"Honey, wake up!" I lightly shook her shoulder. "We're here!"

Yawning, Nessie sat up again and took a look outside the window.

We just drove up the drive-way of the big Cullen house. There were dozens of lanterns hanging outside on the front porch and in the surrounding bushes. All lamps in the house were lit. Clearly, this was becoming a big homecoming party.


	8. Chapter 7: Make a Wish

**Chapter 7: ****Make a Wish**

„Happy Birthday, Nessie!"

Stunned, Nessie and I stood in the living room.

"You knew, didn't you?" I said to Edward.

"Just heard," he smiled.

"What are you guys doing?" Nessie said and scanned the people with an unbelieving look on her face. "My birthday was weeks ago!"

Alice jumped forward and hugged her. "I know," she said and gave me and Edward a pretty dark look. "But since you guys _refused_ to come home on your birthday, I had to come up with something else. So, this is your 'A late Happy Birthday' birthday party."

Everyone was here. Carlisle and Esme, Rosalie and Emmett, Jasper and Jacob and pretty much the whole rest of the pack. Even Dad was here.

"Happy Birthday, pumpkin!" Jacob grinned and lifted Nessie from the ground to whirl her in his arms. My daughter blushed. "Stop calling me that," she mumbled without looking at him.

Alice and I exchanged amused looks while my husband grunted.

"Ok, fine!" Nessie yelled and loosened herself from Jacob's arms.

Alice squealed happily and called, "Jasper!" The called one disappeared for a second and then came back with a gigantic birthday cake.

"Uhh," Alice said and scratched her head, "we weren't sure how many candles you want. Four for your actual or twelve for your physical age?"

"One is enough, thank you," Renesmee smiled.

Alice looked disappointed. Seemed like she had been hoping for twelve candles.

Grumpily, she put one candle in the cake and lit it with a match.

As we all gathered around Nessie and the cake, I gave Charlie a light hug. "Hi, Dad," I said.

"Hey, Bells," he answered and then shook hands with Edward, "Edward."

"Chief Swan," Edward nodded.

Esme went to stand beside Nessie and put one arm around her shoulders. "Make a wish, honey," she said with a kind smile on her face.

"Well," Nessie began and hemmed and hawed, "I need to say my wish out loud." She looked at Edward.

He froze. "No," he said.

"But, Dad-!" she moaned.

"What is it?" I asked.

"She wants us to move south next," he answered. "And she wants Jacob to come along." "Nessie!" I took a serious look at her. "You know the rules! We have to stay at a place where there is not much sun! Otherwise, the risk for exposal is too high!"

"Please, Mom, let me explain!" Nessie said and pulled a sheet of paper out of her jacket. "Look! It's almost winter, isn't it? During the winter, we can go to Louisiana! They have snow and not much sun from November to February, too! We can visit New Orleans and I heard, Shreveport is a nice little town!"

She looked at us with a desperately hoping expression. "Pleeeaase? Give it a thought at least, okay?"

I looked at Edward and pushed my shield away. _Maybe it's not such a bad idea? We could give it a try. _

He sighed.

"Alright," he said, "we can give it a try. But only for a couple of weeks, not longer."

"Thanks, Dad!" Nessie beamed and threw herself into his arms.

Then she jumped in mine. "Thank you, Mom!"

"And can I really come with you?" Jacob grinned.

I held my breath and gave him a quick hug. "Of course you can."

"Oh, can I come, too, please?" Seth asked with a bright smile on his face.

"Seth!" his mother said. "What about school?"

"Nessie and I can go to school together there, Mom," he mumbled embarrassed.

"He's right, Sue, why don't you let him get out of Washington for a while?" Charlie said.

She sighed. "Fine. But promise me, you will study enough."

"Yay!" Seth cheered. "We're gonna have so much fun!"

I couldn't help but to laugh with them.

The sight of two shape-shifters and my daughter jumping up and down with joy was just too amusing. Nessie jumped back to her cake, closed her eyes and blew the still burning candle out.


	9. Chapter 8: Despair

**Chapter 8: Despair**

„You can come see him now."

I looked up. Slowly, I gathered my strength and stood up, my jacket in my arms. "Thanks, Pam."

The vampire woman threw a half-hearted smile at me and left to go back to the bar.

I slowly walked up to the door with the sign on it that said _Manager_ and opened it without a knock.

He knew it was me, anyway.

Quietly, I entered the room, closed the door behind me and waited, my eyes on the floor.

It was quiet for what felt like an hour.

Then, with his usual voice, he said, "Good evening, Sookie."

I looked up but didn't look him in the eyes. "Hello, Eric," I mumbled.

He sighed. "Sit down and tell me what happened," he ordered.

Still not looking at him, I walked up to the chair in front of his desk and sat down. I cleared my throat.

"We were at a restaurant. He rented the whole place just for us, so we and one waitress were the only ones there. Apart from the cook in the kitchen, of course. We danced and I ate."

"Would you mind jumping further to the point when it happened?" It wasn't a question.

I cleared my throat again. "Well, he… I had to go to the bathroom. I was gone for… I don't know." I thought hard about what had happened only a couple of hours ago. It seemed like days. "I couldn't have been gone longer than… 5 or 10 minutes. And when I came back, he was gone." I fell silent.

Eric was silent, too, for the first few seconds. Then he said, "Just like that? You didn't hear or see anything?"

I shook my head.

"And what makes you think he was kidnapped and didn't just leave?"

I looked up and looked into his eyes for the first time. "Because he wouldn't just run away like that!" I said loudly.

"You mean, there was absolutely no reason for him to leave unannounced?" he asked further.

I opened my mouth to say something but then snapped it shut. He couldn't tell me that he knew about the proposal? Once again, I asked myself if there was anything, _anything_ that I could keep from Eric. He always seemed to know everything.

"Well?" he said.

I told him.

After I finished, he stayed quiet for a while.

When I couldn't bare the silence anymore, I said, "So, am I right? He wouldn't run away like that because of something like this, would he?"

He stayed silent. I became really nervous.

"Eric!"

His head shot up.

He looked at me like I had woken him up in the middle of the day. Now it was my turn to say, "Well?"

"I… I don't know," he said.

I stood up in a flash and looked at him with an anger that even scared myself.

"How come you don't know? Bill Compton, my boyfriend, just vanished without a word, he doesn't answer any of my calls, he's not at home and nobody has seen him ever since and you probably know him better than anyone else, apart from his maker, so how home you don't know?" I yelled.

Even though I was standing, he still overreached me by more than a head.

He seemed to think. "No," he finally said. "No, I guess he wouldn't do that."

I sighed and sat back down. "So, what are we gonna do?"

He raised his head and said loudly, "Pam!"


	10. Chapter 9: The State of LA Welcomes You

**A/N: **And here's a new chapter! ^___^ It's a little bit longer than the other ones. :) I hope you enjoy it! *___* Please review! I'm happy about every review I get! ;)

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**Chapter 9: ****The State of Louisiana Welcomes You**

I rolled my eyes. Edward giggled and looked at me. "This is going to be a really long winter," I stated, sighing. It was the middle of November and we were heading south. Right now, we were passing through Colorado. We were all here. Edward and I drove in his Volvo, Carlisle and Esme were in Carlisle's Mercedes behind us. Nessie, Jake and Seth were on the backseats of Alice's Porsche, which was in front of us. Alice had lost a bet to Jasper, so Jasper was driving it, Alice on the passenger seat. She'd been grumpy all day. Emmett and Rosalie were two cars ahead of us in Emmett's Jeep Patriot. Rosalie had left her Convertible in Forks. Involuntarily, to be clear.

We had left Forks yesterday. Sue had given Seth a very long list about how he had to behave, when he had to do his homework and how many types of candy he wasn't allowed to eat. He had thrown the list out of the window, the second we had left the Olympic Peninsula. Charlie had been really unhappy that he had to say goodbye to us again so soon. I was a little sad myself, like I always was when we left Forks. This town had become such an important part of my life. Well, existence.

I could hear Nessie squeak and Alice laughing. Due to the loud airstream and the humming of the cars, we were only able to hear something from the other cars when it was loud. Although Edward was probably able to hear everything because of his gift of hearing other people's thoughts. It was still enough, though. I enjoyed this peaceful ride with my husband.

Two hours later, we made a break in order for Nessie, Jake and Seth to eat something and use the toilet and for our cars to get a refill of gas. We hadn't pulled in a motel last night. Sleeping on the backseats must have been really uncomfortable for my daughter and the wolves but we had agreed on passing right through until Louisiana. Renesmee was so excited for going south anyway, so she didn't seem to mind much.

_The State of Louisiana Welcomes You_ the sign said. It was ten o'clock the next morning and Nessie cheered loudly and hugged me from behind. "Thank you so much for allowing to come here, Mom!" she squealed. I couldn't help but to smile. "Yeah, thanks so much, Mom," Jake teased and grinned at me. I threw a disapproving look at him. "And of course, thanks to you, too, Eddie," Seth said and patted Edward on the shoulder. My husband sighed. "Alright," he said. "Now, it will be less than an hour until we reach Shreveport, so why don't we make sure that everyone knows our story?"

I pulled my cell phone out and built a connection to Esme's, Jasper's and Rosalie's cell phones. "Do you want to start, Carlisle?" Edward asked. "Well, we're Doctor and Mrs Cullen, as usual," Carlisle began. "I will start working in Renard Parish Hospital in Clarice, starting on Monday." "I will be the housewife, shortly spoken. I enjoy book clubs," Esme continued. "Rose?" Carlisle prompted. "I'm Carlisle's niece. Emmett and I have married recently and promised you and Esme to help you with moving in. Then we're moving to New Orleans." "Alice?" "Bella and I are sisters. Our Mom got sick, so she asked her friend Esme to take us in for the winter so she can rest until she's better." "Nessie is my sister. We lost our parents last year and have been living with Jasper, who is our mother's youngest brother, ever since," Edward continued. "And we're moving in the apartment house across the street from Carlisle's house. Which makes us neighbors," Jasper finished.

"And now the hardest part," Carlisle said. I nodded to myself. Jake and Seth. The two were supposed to be brothers who already lived in Shreveport in the same apartment house where Jasper and the others were supposed to move in. The difficult part here was to make the citizens believe that the two wolves had been living here for quite a while now. Which we couldn't, unfortunately. "We've solved that one," Jacob said. I turned my head to look at him. "You have?" "Yep," Seth grinned. "How?" Carlisle asked.

Jake straightened up. "Well, about a year ago, we, the two packs, have been asking ourselves, if there are other shape-shifters out there. So, when you guys were all gone, we headed out for a few weeks to do some investigation." "And?" Emmett asked. "We found out that, to some extent, we are werewolves. We've found a few shape-shifters and they explained the whole thing to us. Real shape-shifters are able to transform into any animal they want. The so-called Weres, on the other hand, are only able to turn into one animal. A shape-shifter who can only turn into a fox, for instance, is called a were-fox." "Well, that's interesting and everything but how does that solve your problem?" Rosalie asked.

"There is a were-wolf in Shreveport who runs a surveying company with his Dad. His name is Alcide Herveaux. We asked around the shape-shifters and Weres a couple of weeks ago, if anyone knows someone in Louisiana and we got his number. So we called him and he said we could live with him over the winter," Seth explained. "His house is only a couple of minutes away from Carlisle's house. And he has a car we can use."

Edward frowned. "And what did you tell him, why you wanted to come here?" he asked.


	11. Chapter 10: Smell

**A/N: **Okay, for everyone who's confused after this chapter (I don't blame you if you are ): Yes, Bill's kidnapping took place while the Cullens were on their way to Shreveport. I know it's a little confusing. ^_^;; I hope you enjoy this chapter. :)

**A/N 2: **"Coming Out" has now over 3,000 Hits! Thank you so much!

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**Chapter 10: Smell**

„I'm sorry I'm late." I turned around. A man had just walked in the door of the restaurant where Eric, Pam and I had waited for the last fifteen minutes. He was huge. He had black curly hair that was extremely tousled. He looked like he had fallen out of bed and then rushed here without taking care of how he looked. From what I could get from his brain structure, he must be a shifter or a Were.

"What took you so long?" Eric asked grumpily. "Two werewolf kids from Washington moved in with me today and I helped them setting everything up for school. I apologize," he said in his husky voice, now turning to me. He reached out his hand. "Alcide Herveaux. Werewolf." I shook it. "Sookie Stackhouse," I replied politely but I couldn't get the worry about Bill out of my voice. Alcide hemmed. "So," he said, "you're a telepath?" I nodded. "Can you hear what I'm thinking right now?" he asked. He seemed worried. I shook my head. "I don't get Weres and shifters as clearly as humans. It's more emotions than actual thoughts," I explained. "And vampires?" He shot a side-look at Pam and Eric. "Not a thing. They're dead, so no brain waves," I said curtly.

"Can we go on then?" Eric called impatiently. Together, the four of us walked into the dining hall of the restaurant where Bill had vanished from 24 hours ago. "So, what am I supposed to do, Mr Northman?" Alcide asked and clapped his hand together. "One of my… employees disappeared last night and no one has heard from him ever since. We think he might have been kidnapped. Question is, was it a human, a vampire, a Were or a shifter?" Eric explained. "The majority of the smells of last night has vanished already. I've checked the place already but it seems, we need someone with the nose of a dog."

Alcide raised his eyebrows at the word "dog" but didn't say anything. "Well, when I'm human, my nose isn't as strong as when I'm a wolf, so," he began. Eric sighed. "Alright, alright. If phasing makes it easier then do it."

"You may want to step back," the werewolf warned me, grinning. I did as he said. Fascinated, I watched his phasing. I'd seen Sam turn back to human a couple of times but I had never seen a shifter, or a Were for that matter, phasing to the animal. His whole body was trembling and then started shaking. His limbs turned dark as the fur was growing. Not even a whole minute later, a full grown shaggy black wolf was standing in front of us. He was about twice the size of a normal wolf.

Eric instructed Pam to guard the door, so no human would come in. Vampires lived out in the open, shifters and Weres, however, were still a well-kept secret.

The wolf, it felt weird to refer to the animal as Alcide, started sniffing around the table where Bill and I had sat. I looked into his head. His brain was buzzing. Something I knew from Sam already. But it was also pulsing with energy. It kind of had a bright red effect on his brain waves. That was new to me. I figured that was how you could differ between the brain of a shifter and the brain of a Were.

"I hope, you brought some extra clothes," Eric stated dryly. The wolf snorted. "What do werewolves from Washington want with you, anyway?" the vampire continued. Alcide turned his large head to me. "He's wondering why you're so chatty today," I told Eric.

"Well, if new Weres are coming to my area, I want to know why," he said simply. Alcide made no attempt to answer. Instead, he spent the next ten minutes with finishing his investigation. After that he signalled me to ask Pam to get some pants from his car. I turned my back to him when he finally shifted back and got dressed. "Well," he eventually said, "the one who took your vampire was clearly not a human. You can scratch Were and shifter from that list, too."

"So it was a vampire?" I asked. He scratched his head. "About that," he said, "It does smell like vampire. But something is totally off. I've never smelled anything like that before. Like it's… you know, like it's not a full vampire. It clearly doesn't smell like a normal vampire and I've met enough vampires in my life to say that." Pam and I exchanged irritated looks. Even Eric looked confused. That surprised me. It was hard to imagine that anything could surprise a 1,000 year old vampire who must have seen basically everything already.

Said vampire seemed to think. "I guess this calls for further investigation," he finally said. He looked at Alcide. "Do you think you will be able to recognize the smell again?" The werewolf cocked his head. "I think so," he murmured. "I can't promise it, though. It depends on how strong my memory of it is, next time I come across it. If it's strong enough, then certainly yes." Eric nodded. "Then I hope I can count on your help," he said, turning his head to me. "If just for our lovely Sookie." I frowned. That's what I hated about Eric. His arrogance and self-assertion. Alcide just nodded, though. "But don't expect from me to be available 24/7," he added. "I'm a daylight person and I got two kids to look after for the next couple of months."

He turned around and walked toward the door. Just before he opened it to leave the restaurant, he said, "And as of the kids: They're attending a boarding school in Washington and the students there are given an opportunity to spend a trimester in a city of their choice. And since friends of theirs just moved to Shreveport, they decided to come here, so they can spend some school time with them."

And with that he left.

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Sooooo, did you like Alcide's appearance? :) I hope my explanation for Jake and Seth being in Shreveport isn't too lame. ^___^;; Please review! Your reviews are my biggest inspiration to keep writing this! So: No reviews, no new chapter. ;)


	12. Chapter 11: Human

**A/N: **I'm so sorry it took me so long to get the new chapter finished! ó__ò It's a little longer than the others. I'm also sorry that this chapter is not so good. :/ I had the feeling I had to explain a few things here. I really hope you enjoy this chapter anyhow. :')

Please review! You know, no reviews, no updates. x3

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**Chapter 11: Human**

The first day of school was just like any other first day of school. A lot of staring, a lot of whispering and a lot of rumors. Since Alice and I were supposed to be sisters, we sticked together the whole time. I was a little worried about Renesmee because this was the first time she was going to school. In the past few weeks, she had grown enough for us to be able to put her in freshman year. She and Edward were the Masen siblings. Alice and I were the Swan sisters. Our two werewolves were known as Jacob and Seth Clearwater.

Alice was actually really excited that she could call herself a Swan. The thing that bugged me was that I wasn't supposed to know Edward yet, so we couldn't sit together at lunch.

I sighed and rubbed my eyes. The brown contacts didn't hurt but they weren't very comfortable either. Since vampires were common knowledge, our disguises had to be even more perfect than usual. We had to look more human than ever before. That was why all of us, except Nessie and the wolves, had to wear contacts at all times we were near humans. We put on spray tan every day, so we weren't too pale. And we had small sound devices stuck to our chests that emitted very low heart beats that could only be heard by someone with vampire hearing.

The first time Jake had seen us like this, he had laughed his pants off.

The classes were easy, I barely paid attention to them. Fortunately, Edward was in all of them. From time to time, I would push my shield away to think something to him. He would always chuckle and whisper something back in vampire speed, so that no one would hear him.

I was relieved, though, when we were back home. When Alice and I walked into the living room, Esme was sitting on the couch, surrounded by four housewives from the neighborhood. "We're home," Alice squeaked happily, waving at the four women. "What lovely young ladies!" one of them said in awe and smiled brightly at us. "Are they yours?" another asked Esme. "These are Bella and Alice Swan. They're my best friend's daughters," Esme explained. "Poor Charlene fell ill a couple of weeks ago and she has to rest in the hospital. She asked me to take her girls in until she's better." The four women nodded understandingly. "How was school?" Esme asked us. "Okay," I answered. "What's for dinner?" Alice asked, rubbing her tummy like she was hungry.

"I was about to prepare some sweet potatoes and vegetables. Wanna help?" she replied, giggling a little. "Sure. Just let us clean ourselves up a bit," Alice said and smiled toward the housewives. Then she turned around and climbed up the stairs. "Come on, Bells!" she called to me. I threw our guests a last smile and then followed my sister. I could hear the women talking when I entered the bathroom. "Those are really lovely ladies, Mrs Cullen," one of them said. "Yes, and how polite they are!" another one continued. We couldn't help but to giggle.

I stepped in front of the mirror and picked out my contacts. They were half-melted already by the venom in my eyes. I was relieved when I heard the women leave. That meant I didn't have to put new ones in. Alice seemed to feel the same way.

When we got back downstairs, the sun came out. There had been a lot of clouds most of the day that had covered it. That was a relief. The spray tan made us a little tanner but it didn't stop our skin from sparkling. I just hoped that the others were okay. I knew Nessie was fine, since her skin only had a faint glimmer when the sun hit it, but Edward and the others had to be careful. This was a small town after all, not a big city, and word was spread very fast. I picked up a book and sat down on the couch. At the same time, I put my hearing on maximum, so I wouldn't miss anything.

I was relieved when I heard Edward's Volvo enter the underground garage of Jasper's apartment building. Half an hour later, he and Nessie walked in through the back door. Edward greeted me with a kiss on the forehead, while my daughter gave me a tight hug. "Hey, honey, was school okay for you?" Esme asked her when she entered the living room. Nessie grinned widely and nodded. "It's really cool! I'm so happy, I'm finally big enough to attend high school. Nothing against your home schooling though, Mama Esme," she added with a wink. "Oh! Where's Rosie, I have to tell her about this girl in my class!" "She and Emmett are picking up some tools, so we can install the rest of the kitchen furniture," Esme answered.

Mr McCarty and Mrs Hale McCarty had bought a house down in New Orleans but they had promised Mr Cullen, who was Mrs Hale McCarty's uncle, to help him and his wife with moving in. That was the official story. In reality, they were going on one of their famous honeymoons again. They had been stuck with Carlisle and Esme and Alice and Jasper for the past three years, so they wanted some time alone again. The cover story of the freshly-wed couple was the perfect opportunity for that.

One hour later, Carlisle came home from work. We all gathered in the living room, to exchange our stories of the first official day in Louisiana.

Esme had introduced herself to our neighbors and gone shopping. Carlisle's first day had been rather quiet. The most exciting case he had gotten in had been a teenager who had driven his dad's car without permission and had bumped into a corn field.

Rosalie and Emmett had installed all the kitchen tools and everything else that needed to be installed. They would leave next weekend.

Seth and Nessie, who were both in freshman year, retold the story about some girl in their class. They also officially had made friends with each other already. "I mean, Seth and I were both new kids, so it makes sense that the new kids spend some time together and become friends quickly, don't you think?" Nessie added. She turned to Jasper. "By the way, uncle Jazz, we're gonna invite Seth and his brother Jacob over next weekend so you guys can meet." She winked at Edward who raised an eyebrow.

Edward and I let Alice and Jacob do the talking about our day. Jacob and Alice surprisingly attended all their classes together. I had been surprised that she hadn't taken all the classes Edward and I also took. Both of them were in our History and English classes, though.

When all of us were finished, Carlisle stood up. "Alright," he began, "there's one more thing. Since we're all in the same spot for the first time in quite a while, we need to set a hunting schedule. We can't always hunt in a close area and also not everyone at the same time. So we're gonna build hunting teams. Each hunting team will be allowed to hunt only once every three weeks. If you're getting too thirsty before your turn is up again, you're gonna have to steal some of that synthetic blood." He looked at all of us with very serious expression.

He turned to Renesmee. "Honey, you're gonna have to eat human food while we're here. No blood for you," he said in a tone that didn't allow any objections. My daughter sighed deeply, but nodded. The rest of us built (very obvious) teams. Edward and I would hunt together, of course, as did Jasper and Alice. Rose and Emmett would be gone in a couple of days, so they didn't have to count themselves in. Nessie would keep Esme company on her hunts, since Carlisle wouldn't come with her.

Carlisle had stopped hunting when the synthetic had been developed. He said the _True Blood_ was pretty good, considering that it was fake blood. We others all had tried it. And we all thought it was disgusting. He had forced us to pick one sort that we could live with if it came to the worst, though. For me, the least disgusting of them was the A positive one. Worst case meant, we had to live on _True Blood_ because we weren't allowed to hunt for some reason. All of us were relieved every day that it hadn't come to the worst yet.

Finally, the schedule was set. Alice and Jasper would hunt this Friday night. Edward and I would go the Friday after that and Esme the week after that. It wouldn't be entirely easy, but we could make. Even Jasper had enough self-control now to make it without blood for that long.

Carlisle had a private _True Blood_ supplier who sent him new bottles every week. So, if it came to the worst, at least we had enough synthetic blood to live through it.

When we all gathered up to start our night activities, Carlisle took his contacts out. Due to his _True Blood_ diet, his eyes had the color of blood oranges. Had been a vegetarian before, and since _True Blood_ was not real human blood, they didn't turn entirely red. We had met vampires a while ago, who had hunted humans before and then started drinking synthetic blood. Their eyes had turned from crimson red to purple.

Edward and I walked Nessie to her room in Jasper's apartment ten minutes later. We had never stopped tucking her in bed at night, although she was already physically fourteen. That was one of the things we always wanted to do as her parents. We were a very abnormal family already, so we wanted to keep some things that were normal and human, like one half of her was.

Our daughter put on some pajamas and then climbed into her bed. I covered her up with the blanket and Edward hummed the lullaby he had written for her two years ago. Half an hour later, she was fast asleep, so my husband and I went to my bedroom and proceeded with our own bed activities.


	13. Chapter 12: First Contact

**A/N:** Soooo, here's the new chapter. A few "Twilight" and "True Blood" characters meeting for the first time. *harharhar* xD I hope you like it!  
Please review, as always! UPDATE: Guys, I've got a task for you. Let's see if it's possible to get an average of 5 reviews per new chapter. Which means, I need another 4 reviews for this chapter. So, give me 4 more reviews and the next chapter will be on the way! I know I'm mean, but if you like this story, tell me! I'm always happy to get reviews and I'm sad that I only get so few with so many story alerts. :(

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** Chapter 12: First Contact**

When I drove up the drive-way, I saw that Alcide Herveaux had a very nice old-fashioned white house. There was a car that seemed to be his business vehicle in the garage. The garage was big enough for two cars. I wondered where the second was. Then I remembered that he had mentioned he had taken in two teens over the winter. Since it was two thirty in the afternoon, they were probably still at school. I parked my car and got out. After I walked up the front porch, I opened the mosquito door and knocked. It had been almost a week since I had met him at the restaurant and I wanted to know if he had updates. I had called Eric last night to ask him where Alcide lived. He had assured me that Alcide was home on tuesday and friday afternoons.

"Coming!" I heard Alcide's voice yell. Half a minute later he opened the door. "Hello, Miss Stackhouse," he said, his red buzzing brain greeting me at the same time. "Hello, Mr Herveaux," I responded, reaching out my hand. "Please, call me Alcide, Miss Stackhouse," he said when he shook it. "Sookie," I insisted. He led me to the kitchen and signalled me to sit down. "Can I offer you anything? Coffee? Tea?" he asked me. "A coffee would be nice," I smiled. Ten minutes later, he handed me the cup and sat down across the table. "So, how can I help you today, Sookie?" he asked.

I told him. "Well," he began and scratched his head, "I haven't come across that smell again. And apart from that I don't know how I can be of any more help." He shrugged apologetically. I nodded and took a sip. "I'm really sorry, Sookie," he said. "I wish I could do more." Suddenly, I had an idea. "What about the two kids? Did you tell them about the new smell? Maybe they've smelled something similar before!" He wrinkled his forehead, thinking. "Maybe," he mumbled. "I haven't thought about that yet." He took a look at his watch. "They should be home any minute. If you wanna wait, you can ask them," he suggested. I nodded. While we waited, we did some small talk. He told me that he ran a surveillance company with his father and that his dad was the current leader of his pack. It surprised me that he trusted me so much to tell me that. He also told me more about the two-natured, what the difference between a Were and a shifter was, how many different kinds of Weres he knew (were-foxes, were-lynxes and many, many more) and which politicians he certainly knew were so-called supes (another word for the two-natured).

Shortly after three o'clock, we could hear a loud vehicle coming up the drive-way. When I looked out of the window, I saw it was an old pick-up truck. Two native-american boys got out of it. If you still could call them boys. 'Holy cow,' I thought to myself. Both boys were very tall and very, very big. I had never seen so much muscle on a teen before. The taller one looked like... gosh, twenty-three or something and the other one looked at least nineteen.

I could hear them laugh loudly, though I didn't know what they laughed about. Their brains were the now familiar buzzing red pulsing energy I also got from Alcide. They got out of sight when they entered the house. "We're home!" one of them called. "In the kitchen!" Alcide called back. A few seconds later, the boys walked through the door and (jeez!), they were even bigger close up! "Guys, this is Sookie Stackhouse, a friend of mine," Alcide introduced me. I put on my brightest smile, the one I used when I was nervous. I had reason to be nervous since I'd never been in the presence of three were-wolves at once before. The taller boy extended his hand. "I'm Jacob Clearwater," he introduced himself and then pointed at the other boy. "This is my brother Seth." He put on a smile that made my eyes pop wide open with astonishment. I'd never seen such a sunny smile on a guy before. It turned out his brother wasn't far behind him when said boy threw me a heart-throbbing grin and said, "Hi, Miss Stackhouse, nice to meet you." "How was school?" Alcide asked. "Good," Jacob responded.

"Um, it's okay if we go visit classmates tomorrow, right?" Seth asked. "I mean, you didn't have anything planned for tomorrow, did you?" Alcide shook his head. "That's okay, you go ahead," he said. "Are those the friends you told me about?" "No, it's a friend I made who is in my grade," Seth replied. Jacob nudged Alcide and whispered, "It's a girl." He winked at me. "Jake!" Seth yelled, becoming as red as a tomato. I couldn't help but to giggle. "Anyway," Jacob continued as if he hadn't just made his brother blush, "her brother is in two of my classes, so we thought we all could get to know each other better by hanging out a little. And since they live just across the street from our friends, I thought we could drop in there a little, too."

"Ok," Alcide said. "Listen, I need to ask you something. What you first need to know is that Sookie here knows about us." Both boys froze. "You mean," Seth began after a long pause, "she knows we're-?" Alcide nodded. "It's okay," I assured. "I'm not gonna tell anybody. My boss is a shifter, that's how I first became aware of the two-natured." "Oh, it's not that," Jacob said, smiling apologetically. "We're just surprised that a... you know, a normal person knows about us."

I already moaned in my thoughts when Alcide objected. "Oh, Sookie isn't entirely normal, either," he said, a smirk on his face. "She's a telepath." My nervous smile made a return. The boys exchanged amazed looks. They were surprised, I got that much from their brains, but something was off. They weren't surprised about the fact that telepathy existed.

"Does that mean you can hear what we're thinking right now?" Jacob asked. I told them what I had told Alcide the week before. Both of them were dead relieved to hear it. I wondered what could be so terrible that the thought that it could come out would be so terrifying. "So, what do you want to know?" Jacob asked. Alcide gestured me to begin.

I told them about Bill and what had happened.

Another thing they didn't seem to be surprised about, a human falling in love with a vampire. After I finished, Alcide explained a few things that I didn't entirely understand. Jacob and Seth, however, seemed to know what he was talking about. I guessed that was kind of a were-wolf thing. "Any ideas?" Alcide ended his explanation. The brothers exchanged looks. "No idea," Seth finally said, shrugging. "Doesn't ring a bell." And, suddenly, something happened that totally caught me off-guard.

From one second to the other, a solid wall had been conjured in front of both boys' brains. My jar dropped.

"I'm sorry we can't help you, Miss Stackhouse," Jacob apologized. His smile was suddenly ten degrees colder. Finally, I managed to get over the shock and shook my head. "You don't have to be. It was just an idea," I said, beaming for the third time in less than half an hour. I got up and thanked Alcide for the coffee. He walked me to the front door and opened it for me. "I will call you if I come to learn something new," he said and then wished me good-bye. When I got in my car, I could feel the boys' stares in my neck. They knew something.

Just what were they hiding?


	14. Chapter 13: Surprise

**A/N:** So, here is the new chapter. Had a pretty good go on this one. :) I hope you like it!

Please review!

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**Chapter 13: Surprise**

"You won't believe who we met yesterday!" Jacob said when he and Seth walked through Jasper's apartment door for their official first visit to Edward and Vanessa Masen. "Hello, Jacob, good to see you. How are you? I'm fine, thanks for asking," Edward said with a voice that made Nessie and me giggle.

"Yeah, whatever, you will be as excited as we are in a sec," Jake said, waving his hand like he pushed Edward's words away. Edward opened his mouth to say something and then froze. After he hadn't said a single word in three seconds, I became worried. I exchanged looks with our daughter. "Daddy? What is it?" she finally asked. "You met another telepath?" Edward asked, his eyes without a blink still on Jacob, "A HUMAN telepath?"

Nessie's and my eyes widened. Jake and Seth nodded and told us what had happened after school yesterday at Mr Herveaux's house. Renesmee's mouth dropped. "And she can't hear vampires' thoughts?" I asked Seth. "Yes. And she can't hear our thoughts properly, too. She said there's like a buzzing in our brains that makes it hard. Not impossible, though," he said and smiled at me. "By the way, your mind-blocking training came in real handy back then, so thanks for that." I smiled back at him.

Since Edward wasn't always able to stay out of people's heads when they wanted him to, I, as the "mind blocking expert", like Emmett liked to call me, had come up with a method to roughly close up your mind against my husband's mind reading. My family had been more than delighted to learn it.

Obviously, it was easier for the vampire part of my family. The wolves were good enough to support Edward in his own efforts to stay out of their brains but from time to time, something still came through, Edward had told me once.

I frowned. "So," I began, "if I ever come across her, I have to push my shield away period, because otherwise, she will know I'm a vampire?" "I guess," Jake said and shrugged.

"So, what are we gonna do now on our first official visit?" Nessie asked. "We'll hang out a bit and then introduce you and Edward to our friends Bella and Alice," Jacob grinned, giving me a wink. A rock slipped from my heart. "That's great, thanks, guys" I said relieved and smiled at them. Edward seemed happy, too. "Then I suggest you to go back home and wait for us," he said with a teasing smirk. "Yeah, Bella, we'll be there in an hour or two," Jacob grinned. I glared at both of them but got up without saying anything. "See you soon, Mom," Nessie said and gave me a smile that cheered me up a little. "Oh," I remembered something when I opened the door. I didn't stop but kept leaving. I knew they could hear me. "Why don't you come over when Jasper's back from work, and bring him with you, so Alice can be happy, too?" "Alright," I could hear Edward say. On my way to the staircase, I made sure no one saw me. After checking if someone was on the stairs, I rushed down to the underground garage and left the building through the back door. I crossed the street and was home in a flash. I had barely closed the door when Alice almost knocked me over in a hug, squealing, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

I giggled. "You're welcome," I said. "Just make sure you don't rush anything with him, but go on a date first. People will find it awkward if you guys were together all of a sudden." She let go of me, a frown on her face. One and a quarter seconds later, her face lightened up. "Don't worry, it'll be fine," she said cheerily. "Jazz is bored at work," she said a moment later. "I can imagine," I nodded. Jasper worked at a telephone agency for polls. His job was to call random households to ask them about their housekeeping products, their free time habits, if they smoked or not, if they thought whether the state of Louisiana should allow vampire-human marriages and many other topics. Those poll people had always annoyed the hell out of me, I used to just hang up on them. Most people certainly did, but since Jasper worked there, the victims couldn't help but to patiently answer his questions and revel in his musical voice. Though I could imagine that Jasper tried his best to sound bored when he made those calls.

"When is he coming home?" I asked Alice. "Three," she answered. "The agency closes early on Saturdays." I looked at the clock. We still had ninety minutes. "Hey, do you think, they're willing to go shopping when they come?" Alice asked me. "You tell me," I shrugged. She frowned. "I think they are but I'm not sure," she said. "Yeah, Nessie and Seth are. Jasper is always coming. Edward is… well, Edward. And.. oh, Bella, shopping's not _that_ horrible, you can tell Jacob that, too!" I grinned. Becoming a vampire hadn't made me a shopping-lover, no matter how much Alice had hoped for that. Renesmee, however, _loved_ shopping. If stores weren't open for just 9 or 10 hours a day, they would go shopping for two days straight. I was happy that Alice had found a shopping partner. This way, she didn't drag me with her all day long through dozens of stores and malls. I had to admit, finding out that Renesmee loved shopping just as much as Alice did had been a relief for me. But sometimes, when they thought I desperately needed new clothes, they would both drag me with them, no matter how much I complained. Nessie had her ways to convince me, though, just like Edward, when he made me do something I didn't really want to do. You would think, being as invincible as him had changed that but it was quite the contrary. I was even more unable to refuse him now than I had been when I had been human.

Alice and I watched television while we waited. There was a news report of an explosion in a vampire's home that had happened about two weeks ago down in Dallas. They said a few vampires and several humans had been killed and that the survivors had vanished shortly after the incident, destination unknown. The reporter said that it supposedly had been an act of hate. "It's been three years, people!" he said. "I think we all should be used to vampires being around by now. Hate never has gotten us anywhere useful." He continued with the next report. "That's exactly why we can't tell anyone what we are," Alice said thoughtful. "People are already freaking out about the other vampires, which they can kill if they need to. Imagine what kind of panic would break out if they knew that vampires exist that can't be killed by humans." I nodded. That would worry me, too. Actually, it did. I knew how many of our kind were out there that didn't care about humans at all.

Alice jumped.

"What's wrong?" I asked, alarmed. "I'm not sure," she said, hovering for a few seconds. "Something is going to happen when we go shopping. I don't know what exactly but it will mean something." "Then maybe we should stay here," I suggested, hopeful. My sister shook her head. "No," she said, "I have a feeling it has to happen. Like it's important." She looked at the clock. "Not long anymore," she murmured.

~x~

"Alice, will you stop that, you're making me nervous!" "I'm sorry, I just don't know when it's gonna happen!" Alice replied, turning her gaze back the blouse she was holding. We were all stiff. Alice had told the others about her vision the minute they had walked through the door. We had spend some time in the house and then left for the shopping mall in Clarice when the sun started setting. Because of Seth and Jake, Alice wasn't able to tell what exactly was going to happen. So the moment we had entered the mall, she had started looking around like crazy, which made us more nervous than we already had been. She and Nessie both looked at clothes and tried them on like they were on a normal shopping trip but we all could feel they didn't enjoy it as much as they usually would. We tried to look as normal as possible, like friends who just hung out at the mall.

"Here it is!" Alice suddenly whispered when we passed one of the mall entrances. "Whatever happens, it happens right here!" We froze and immediately pretended to read the map on the wall, like we were deciding which store we would go to next. I glanced at our surroundings. People were entering and exiting the mall and passing by where we were standing. "Can we go to Macy's next?" Nessie asked loudly. "Sure, why not," Seth said.

"Excuse me," a voice behind us suddenly said, "could you step aside, please, so we can see the map, too?" We turned around. We hadn't heard the men coming that were standing behind us. Which could only mean one thing. I listened. Indeed, none of them had a heartbeat and both of them were very pale. Our first meeting with vampires of the other kind. Edward was the first to gather his thoughts.

"Sure, go ahead," he said, the crooked smile on his face. The men nodded politely and stepped forward. I noticed that they eyed Jacob and Seth very closely. Vampires knew about were-wolves, of course, those two were no exception.

I opened my mind. I knew Edward wouldn't say anything, because the two vampires would hear it, so I thought a yes-or-no question to him. _Are they wondering if they should ask Jake and Seth about what they are?_ I asked. He very lightly shook his head. I frowned. _But they know what they are?_ He nodded. Jacob pretended to still look at the map. I could see one of the men wrinkle his nose. "Do you think we can grab some dinner here?" Seth asked. "Sure," Jasper said. _I guess this is the major test if our disguise works_ I thought. Edward didn't react. "C'mon, let's keep going!" Alice said. We all smiled politely at the two vampires and then left for Macy's. Edward's face was blank. I frowned. He didn't talk until we had entered Macy's and gone to the back of the store, where we were sure they couldn't hear us.

"This is not good," he said. "Why, what is it?" Jasper asked. "Of course, the first thing they realized was that Jacob and Seth are were-wolves," Edward began. "So, they didn't find it weird that we are with them. Then they caught our scent. The spray-tan smelled weird to them, but they thought that was normal. They already were around when spray-tan had been invented and they think it's some weird thing teens do to look cool." He frowned. "But there's one thing and that made them suspicious. We should have known that contacts won't work on vampires. We underestimated their eyes. Their eyes are as good as ours, so they noticed that we're wearing colored contacts." "And that means?" Jacob asked. "They think we're some supernatural creatures they don't know about," Alice said, face blank. "What are you seeing?" Jasper asked, touching her shoulder.

"In a couple of hours, they will drive down to a bar in Shreveport to tell their… their sheriff about us and to ask him what they're supposed to do with us." She gasped. "He will tell them to follow our scent to capture us, so he can question us. Destroy us, if we're dangerous." "But we're superior in numbers. A single vampire won't be able to kill us all," I said. Alice shook her head. "I'm not so sure about that. They are scared of him. He must be incredibly old. A thousand years, minimum." "So what? I thought newborns were the strongest?" Jacob said. "In our case, that's true," Jasper confirmed. "But there's no guarantee that it's the same with them." "So, what should we do?" I asked. We stayed quiet for a moment. Then Jasper said, "We have no choice. We have to kill them before they tell their boss about us."

~x~

"There they are," Edward said. Jasper revved the engine and pulled out of the street, right in front of them. Since Edward could read their minds, we didn't have to driver after them, because we would know when they would turn beforehand. "I don't like this," Carlisle said. "Me, neither," Edward replied. "But we can't risk to get exposed."

We had driven Nessie, Alice, Jake and Seth home and told Carlisle and Esme about what had happened. Carlisle had insisted to come along, although he hated having to kill another creature. Our contacts had been completely melted when we got home, but we hadn't bothered to put new ones in. To the vampires we were going to destroy, it wouldn't make a difference.

A street away from the bar, we stopped the car and let them drive past us. Then we got out and rushed after them. We would have stopped their car earlier, but Alice had predicted that they would use the back door instead of the front entrance. The parking lot was almost empty. We hid in the bushes until they got out of the car. Then we started our plan.

Carlisle stumbled out of the bushes, covering his eyes and whining. "You!" he yelled at the vampires. "Are you vampires? Something is wrong with me! My eyes are changing the color! What's happening to me? Am I turning? Please, you have to tell me!" He fell to the knees and grabbed the coat of one of the vampires. "Hey, let go of me!" the man bellowed. "My eyes are burning!" Carlisle screamed. "Please make it stop!" "What, do you want us to give you our blood, so you can heal?"

Jasper, Edward and I froze. Their blood was able to heal humans? For a moment, Carlisle didn't move. He seemed to be as shocked as we were. Then the one whose coat Carlisle was still holding grabbed Carlisle by his jacket and pulled him up. "So? What do you want from us?" He shook Carlisle so hard that his jacket and shirt underneath it ripped. Then the vampires saw Carlisle's blood orange eyes. And their gazes fell on his heart beat device. "What the-?" the other man was able to say before Jasper flashed over to him and pushed a stake through his heart. Edward and I were half-way there, too, when something happened we didn't expect. Since these vampires seemed to be almost exactly like the ones in the legends, we had thought they would fall to ashes when they were staked.

This vampire, however, fell apart to a stinking, disgusting bloody mess. The remaining vampire used our hesitation to let go of Carlisle and kick him across the parking lot. Edward didn't hesitate any longer and staked him. The same bloody mess fell to the ground. "Shit!" my husband hissed. I looked at him in shock. I had never heard him swear before. Carlisle had gotten up rushed over to us. "That's really bad," he just said. "How are we going to cover that up?" Jasper asked. "We can't burn it," I said, "They will smell it. Even if we burned it, there would still be a scent left."

Suddenly, a light appeared in the dark parking lot. We turned around to see a vampire woman stand in the back door. "What the fuck-?" she mouthed.

We ran. We still had been in the shadows when the door had opened but she probably saw us just fine. Jasper ripped the license plate off our car and got the papers from the glove department and we continued. Without the license plate and the papers, they couldn't find out whose car it was. It would probably get dumped in some used car shop. When we got home, Jasper called Alice out, who didn't ask any questions and they jumped in her Porsche. "We'll have the new Mercedes by morning," Jasper said and they rushed off.

"Where's Nessie?" I asked Esme. "Back in Jasper's apartment, waiting for you to tuck her in," she answered. I sighed. Then Edward and I went over to our daughter to tell her that we had to leave Louisiana.


	15. Chapter 14: Concern

**A/N:** Yes, I'm already done with the next chapter! Review, please, getting so few reviews is actually really frustrating! C'mon, writing down if you liked the chapter or not can't be that hard! (^o^)=8

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**Chapter 14: Concern**

„Have a good night," I said and closed the door after Jane Bodehouse and her son who had to pick her up once again. It was two o'clock at night and we were about to close up _Merlotte's_. I grabbed a towel and began cleaning up the tables while Terry Bellefleur swept the floor.

The phone rang. I heard Tara picking it up and exchange a few words with the other end. "Sookie!" she called over to me. "Yeah?" I called back. "It's for you. Some Pam from _Fangtasia_," she said and held the phone in my direction. I hurried over to the bar and grabbed the phone. "Hello, it's Sookie speaking," I said. "Good evening, Sookie," I heard Pam's smoky voice on the other end say. "We need you to get over to _Fangtasia_ immediately." "Why, what happened?" I asked with a frown on my face. "I think we have crossed over the same smell that was in the restaurant," Pam said. That was good enough for me. I told Pam I would be there in thirty minutes and hung up. Sam came back from his office where he had stored the income from tonight. I told him what Pam had told me and then went to Sam's office to get rid of my apron and grab my purse. My heart was racing with curiosity when I got in my car and revved the engine. The drive to Shreveport seemed to last forever but I arrived eventually.

Since Pam had told me to use the parking lot in the back, I drove around back. A lot of people were standing around a spot beside _Fangtasia's_ back door. Eric was there, as was Pam, also a few employees of the bar. And Alcide and the two boys. I parked my car and joined the crowd. There were two spots on the ground that were covered in the remains of two staked vampires. Jacob and Seth seemed really uncomfortable being surrounded by half a dozen vampires. I tried to read their minds, but once again, there was a wall in front of them. These boys were better at closing up their minds than I was when I tried to shut brains out.

"Hello, Sookie," Eric greeted me. "Please, stand next to me." I rolled my eyes but didn't complain. I knew he could feel what I felt and that didn't make it any better. "So," I began when I was beside him, "what's all this about?" "The pieces you see here are the remains of two underlings of mine. Salvio and Ben are spies who keep an eye on all the vampires that are under my command," Eric explained. "Every Saturday night, they meet with me here to give me their report on that and everything else suspicious they find, like they were supposed to do tonight. Pam."

Pam stepped a little forward. "They always come in through the back door where I'm waiting for them," she said. "They use a certain bell code, so I that I know they've arrived. I can hear the bell from the bar, so I don't have to stand at the door all night long. They were running late, so I decided to go to the back door to look if they were coming. On my way there, I could hear people talking outside. A man's voice was wondering what to do with the remains, it seems, and a woman said they couldn't burn them because 'they', what I guess means us, would smell it. That's when I opened the door. They were four. Three men, one woman. From what I could see, the woman was brunette, two of the men were blond. I couldn't see the third well enough. When they fled with massive speed, I thought they were vampires but I could hear four heartbeats, so that doesn't make sense."

Eric continued, "Pam told me immediately what had happened. She also told me about the smell. So I called Alcide right away. As you can see, he took the boys with him for support."

"We wanted to wait for you, Sookie," Alcide explained. "But from what I can tell in human form, it seems to be the same smell. Seth and Jake offered their help, that's why they're here." I nodded in understanding. "Then, please," I said, "go on." The three were-wolves nodded and walked backwards. "You guys might want to get out of the way," Jacob suggested. "The turning is quite explosive." All of us stepped back to the wall and watched the were-wolves transform. Since I'd seen Alcide turn before, I was used to him. But the boys, like Jacob had predicted, literally _exploded_.

Jacob's and Seth's shapes started to shake and tremble. Jacob took a jump forward and exploded into a gigantic wolf. I gasped in shock. Wolf-Jacob was almost three feet taller than Wolf-Alcide. Even Wolf-Seth was bigger than the elder. They started sniffing around the two bloody spots. I got some pictures and fractures of thoughts from Alcide, but I still couldn't hear anything from the other two. I wondered how they did that.

Then, Jacob opened his mind a little to let me know that they were almost done, and that was when something slipped out. The face of a brunette girl, about 17 years old, with brown eyes and a heart-shaped face, a little pale, like she lived in a place without much sunlight, smiling shyly. The picture only lasted two seconds, but it had burned itself into my memory.

A couple of minutes later, Alcide turned back to human and got dressed. Were-wolves always seemed to have spare clothes. "It's not the exact same smell," Alcide concluded, "but it's definitely the same kind. Looks like we have to add new supes to our list." He lifted his head up and smelled. "They fled in this direction" he said and pointed to the parking lot entrance, "Jake, can you guys follow the trail for a couple of minutes and find out where it leads?" The wolves nodded and, in the shadows of the trees, ran in the said direction.

We all waited quietly. About fifteen minutes later, we could hear them come back. Alcide went to his car and pulled two pairs of pants out of the trunk, which he then threw into the shadows. We could hear heavy huffs and then two sounds of someone zipping his pants. Then the boys came out in the open. Since they weren't wearing any shirts, I could see that both of them had sixpack abs that even Jason would become jealous of.

"The trail is weakening about two miles back, looks like they took a car. But I think they were heading for the border to Texas," Jacob said.

Eric, Pam and I exchanged looks. "Texas?" Eric said. "Are you sure?"

Jacob frowned. "Yeah, why?"

Could it be? Did the attackers have anything to do with the incident in Dallas? The Dallas vampires of course knew that Eric was sheriff of Area 5, so it would make sense that they killed the spies. And did they kidnap Bill, too? But why would they kill these two and just simply take Bill away? Why not kill him, too? Or was Bill even alive? I shuddered when looked down to the remains of the spies. I couldn't bare the thought of the same thing happening to Bill.

"Eric," I said, turning back to the Viking. "We have to find out what's going on."

"I agree," he nodded. "If they have anything to do with it, we have to know. Chow."

"Yes, sheriff?" the bartender, who was standing next to Pam, said.

"Choose one of my men to come with you. You will leave for Dallas tomorrow night. Find out if they have something to do with this," Eric ordered.

"Yes, sheriff," Chow nodded.

"I guess that leaves it for tonight," the sheriff concluded. "Thank you for coming, Sookie. You may stay until sunrise if you like." He punctuated his offer with a lustful smile. I shot him a glare. "No, thank you," I said politely and turned to Alcide.

"Thank you for helping," I said to him and looked at the boys. "You, too. It's very kind of you." "Don't mention it, Miss Stackhouse," Seth said. "It's no biggie. "

Seeing the boys half-naked reminded me that it was winter and that the weather guy on TV had said it would be a very, _very_ cold night with only 16 degrees. I shuddered. "Aren't you guys cold?" I asked Jacob who didn't seem to freeze at all. He shook his head. "Nah," he said, "we're running a constant of 108 degrees. It's a were-wolf thing." He and Seth grinned cheerfully.

That made me feel the cold even more. "Must be nice," I said. I sighed and turned back to Eric and Pam, but I only addressed Pam. "Thanks for calling me," I said and then said to Chow, "I hope you will find out something." Chow just nodded and then said, "Have a good night, Miss Stackhouse."

I walked to my car and turned on the heater when I had closed the door. Alcide and the boys also climbed in Alcide's car and they left the parking lot before me. I drove after them and came to a stop behind them at a crossroad five minutes later. Alcide's car signaled to turn left while I was signaling to turn right.

When the traffic light turned green, I caught one single thought from Alcide's car, though I didn't know which of the boys thought it.

_Everything's fine._


	16. Chapter 15: Delay

**A/N: **I know, this chapter isn't very long but I had the feeling, the last sentence is a funny end to this chapter. :3 I hope you'll enjoy it anyhow. :)

REVIEW! :3

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**Chapter 15: Delay**

„Everything's fine," I could hear Seth say. "They sent us to follow the trail and we said the attackers were heading for the Texan border. Seems like they think some vampires from Dallas could be the culprits, because of something that happened down there. Seems like we got a lucky hint." "Okay, Seth, thank you," Nessie said and hung up her cell phone.

Then she turned to me and Edward, hands on her waist and her left eyebrow raised. We sighed. "Go on," Edward said dryly. Our daughter grinned and said, "_I told you so_."

~_2 hours earlier_~

"NO. WAY!"

"Nessie, that vampire _saw_ us!"

"So? There's no guarantee she saw you clearly and would recognize you when she saw you again!"

"There's no guarantee she won't, either!"

"I don't wanna leave Louisiana! Seth and I are having so much fun here!"

"They could expose us! And you know what the Volturi will do if that happens!"

"Then they have to suck up that vampires are no secret anymore! And they can't change that!"

"Renesmee Carlie Cullen! Do you really want to risk us getting all _killed_?"

Our daughter became silent. After a few seconds, she said, "No. Of course not. I'm sorry."

Edward and I exchanged looks. "Then please start packing your bags. We'll leave once Jasper and Alice are back," I said.

Nessie moaned. "Mom. Dad," she began. "If we all leave all of a sudden, people will get suspicious. As you said many times before, this is a small town, where word is spread really fast. People will _talk_. Just think of the neighbors. Have you forgotten how nosy they are? They will ask questions."

"But still-!" I started.

"Mom, please let me finish!" She threw me the grown-up look she'd had since the day she'd been born. The look that told us not to treat her like a child when she was mentally far beyond that.

I signaled her to continue.

She put her hands together in a begging pose. "We can fix this. You just have to trust me. Do you trust me?"

We nodded.

"Good." She pulled out her cell phone and punched in a number. We heard it ring on the other end. Then someone picked up. "Hey, Jake, listen. You and Seth have to do something for me, otherwise we have to leave. Did Mr Herveaux get a call that told him to come to a bar in Shreveport?"

"Yeah, he's about to leave, why?" we heard Jacob ask.

"Say, you and Seth want to come along to help. Say, three noses are better than one. Make sure, when you are there, you lead them in the wrong direction and…"

~_3 hours later/Present_~

"We can't go out at night anymore," Carlisle concluded. "At least not in the part of town where the bar is. When you go hunt, take a long way round that bar. We can't risk to be seen again in the dark. If those two vampires were able to tell that we're not human, other vampires will be, too. That's it for now. Jasper, Edward."

The addressed looked up.

"When the sun is high enough, you will move the Mercedes away from that street and dump it at the next junk yard. Make sure the owner doesn't wake up when you make it scrap metal. It shouldn't be recognized as a Mercedes anymore when you're done. And thank you for getting the new one, Jasper," Carlisle said.

Jasper nodded. "Mr Jenks knows what he's doing," he said.

"Bella, can you call Jacob and tell him what we've decided?" Carlisle asked me.

I nodded. "Sure."

"Alright," my Father-in-Law sighed. "I got the morning shift, so I've got to hurry."

He kissed Esme good-bye, grabbed the keys of the new Mercedes and left. It was eight o'clock in the morning and last night had been one of the longest nights in my existence. At least it felt like that.

I sat down on the couch and pulled out my cell phone. Jacob was number three in my speed dial, right after Charlie and Nessie. The phone on the other end rang four times, then Jacob picked it up, giving me a "Hello?" in his best "Who dares to wake me this early?"-voice.

"Jake, it's me," I said. "Oh, hey, Bells," he greeted me. I told him what we had talked about. He yawned. "But it's okay if Nessie, Seth and I wanna go to the movies at night, right?" he asked. He sounded concerned. I grinned weakly. "I guess that shouldn't be a problem," I said. "And I know she can take care of herself but it would be good if you could look out for her when you're hanging out. Can you do that for me?"

"Sure thing," Jacob answered and yawned again. "Was that all, Bell? I'd like to go back to sleep." I giggled. "Okay," I said. "See you in school tomorrow."

When I hung up, I heard Edward chuckle behind me. He leaned down to me and placed a soft kiss on my lips. "So," he started, "when shall our first date be?"

I blinked. "Huh"?

He chuckled again. "We officially know each other now. So, would you like to go on a date with me?"

Realization struck me. With all that had happened last night, I had totally forgotten that Edward and I could be publicly together again.

My face lightened up. "Of course I do. When do we go?"

"Well, we can't go on a school night, unfortunately," my husband sighed. "Friday night? Someplace outside Shreveport?"

I sloped my head. "Sounds good. Your or my pick?"

"I'll see what places I can find," he said.

I nodded. Then I started smirking teasingly. "Wanna go spy on our sleeping daughter?"

My husband chuckled once again. I took that as a yes. We made our way out of the house and sneaked up to Nessie's room in Jasper's apartment. Our daughter looked like an angel. Since she was sleeping, her heartbeat was a little slower than usual, about the pace of a human's when he was awake. Each one of us sat down on one edge of Renesmee's bed. We stayed like this for about three quarters of an hour. Then, our lovely angel woke up and jumped.

"Mom! Dad! Seriously?"


	17. Chapter 16: Flashback

**A/N: **A long chapter! I know, I can't believe it, either! xD I'm sorry for not updating this long, but over the past few weeks, I was too busy with my college application and being nervous if I'm going to get accepted. And I did, I got accepted, yay!

"Eclipse" felt so bizarre, it was so different from other movies I've seen. When it comes to just the Cullens, I've already been Team Jasper for a long time, but in "Eclipse", he totally stole my heart! ~ So, I wanted to put a little Jasper-love in this chapter. ;)

Anyway, long story short, this chapter is the longest yet and I actually really like it. :)

Enjoy your reading!

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**Chapter 16:**** Flashback**

After this nerve-wrecking weekend, school felt almost boring. Edward, Nessie, Jacob, Seth, Alice and I all sat together at lunch on Monday.

Since we knew that vampires like to take care of their problems themselves, we weren't concerned about anything spreading out to the media. The only official thing we saw was a short notice of the two deaths in the obituary section of the _Shreveport Daily_ and they didn't post any details there, just that the two's existence had ended.

What concerned us was how long it would take these vampires to find out the culprits they were looking for were not in Texas. Would they extend their searching to other states or would they realize that we hadn't left Louisiana at all? Would they think that Seth and Jake had been wrong or would they accuse them of compliancy?

I must have been raving nervous, because when we left school for the parking lot two hours later, where Jasper was waiting for Alice, a wave of comfort washed over me. When I looked up, Jasper was looking at me, worried. "Thanks," I whispered. "I'll be fine." He nodded and then put on his playful grin when Alice walked up to him. "Hello, Jasper," Alice said, her eyes lightening up. "Are you picking up Edward and Vanessa?"

"No, they can take care of themselves," Jasper chuckled. "Actually, I'm here to see you." Alice put on a very shy smile, all for the audience of course. "Me?" she said questioningly. Jasper took a look around, grinning wider, and then said, "I thought you probably won't refuse when I ask you in front of a crowd."

"Ask me what?" she said, sounding irritated.

I heard Edward chuckle beside me.

The students around us had stopped walking and were now staring at Alice and Jasper.

Jasper pulled out a flower behind his back and held it out to Alice. "Alice Swan," he began, "would you like to go out on a date with me?"

The girls all held their breaths.

I couldn't help my smile when Alice turned her head to me as if she was asking me what to do. I giggled and nodded. "Say yes!" I mouthed to her, knowing that people would see it.

She turned back to Jasper and cleared her throat. "Well," she started. "Yes, Mr Whitlock. I would like to go out with you." She smiled brightly.

Jasper's face lightened up when she closed the distance between them and took the flower.

The people around us started clapping. "Way to go, man!" a senior yelled to Jasper.

I was watching Alice and Jasper and didn't pay attention to Edward, so it caught me off-guard when the clapping and cheering died out. I wondered why that was when Edward sunk down to one knee in front of me and took my hand. I stared at him. _What are you doing?_ I yelled at him in my head, shield pushed away.

"Bella Swan," he started. "I know this won't sound half as good as when my uncle said it and I also don't have a flower at hand. Sorry for copying you, Uncle Jazz!" he yelled over his shoulder.

"Really, Edward?" Jasper answered. "Be a little more original, will you?"

The people around us broke out laughing. Edward and I couldn't help but to laugh with them.

"Anyway!" Edward said loudly to get the attention back and then locked his eyes with mine. "Bella Swan. Will you do me the honor of going out with me?"

I hesitated long enough for him to get nervous. But then I nodded my head and said, "Yeah, I will."

A relieved grin spread out on his face when people started clapping again. "I wish someone would do that for me," I could hear a girl whisper to her friend, jealousy in her voice.

"You almost had me there," Edward teased me, "For a second I thought you were going to say no."

"My revenge for making such a show out of it," I grinned.

Alice and Jasper appeared beside us. "Hey, why don't we all go out on a movie night on Friday?" my sister suggested. "Why not make it a double date, what do you think?"

"I think you should first check the future," Edward said. "No more surprises please."

Alice sighed. "Alright," she said. "I'll check all possibilities and let you know tonight."

"Um, Edward," I said and threw him a reminding look. "Have you forgotten what you said yesterday?" _Alone time? Restaurant?_

"Right," Edward said and turned back to Alice. "Can't we move the double date? Bella and I would like to go out alone."

Alice moaned but then her face brightened up in gloating joy. "No, the double date is on," she grinned. "Nessie and Seth are coming, too."

"Really?" my daughter asked happily and joined our circle. We had been talking quietly in vampire speed the last couple of minutes, so that the students wouldn't know what we were saying.

"Great," Jake grunted, appearing beside Renesmee. "And what am I supposed to do Friday night?"

"I don't know," Alice stated. "I can't see you. I only know that Seth is coming because Edward is going to be glad that it's not you."

Jacob threw my husband a glare. "As if you don't know that it's going to happen anyway," he snarled.

Edward returned his look. "That doesn't mean that I approve you and my _daughter_ becoming all inter-"

"Guys!" Renesmee yelled. "Stop talking about me like I'm not here, alright?"

She took a look around and then hissed, "Besides, people are starting to stare again! Behave! You can fight your battles when we're home!"

"Alright then!" Seth said loud enough for the people around us to hear it. "Triple Date with a Movie Night on Friday. Gonna be awesome!"

~x~

"What do you think about this one?"

"Gah, Alice, you know already what dress you'll be wearing, so can't we get over this and go home?"

"I just wanna check all possibilities, Bella, like Edward told me."

"Yeah, all possibilities concerning other vampires! He didn't mean that you should try on every single dress in town!"

"Oh, come on, Mom, where's the fun when you can't change the future a little?"

I grunted in annoyance.

I should have known that going on a date, especially a triple date, would mean that Alice and Renesmee would take me on one of their hell shopping trips once again. It was Wednesday and we were in the Clarice shopping mall again. Nessie and I had been concerned if we should go there again so soon but Alice had assured us that nothing would happen this time. We still wanted to get out of here before dusk, though. No more risks.

I had found a dress very quickly. It was midnight blue with ice blue edges, an ice blue belt and ribbon and silver lines printed on it. It was simple, yet very pretty.

My sister and my daughter, however, seemed to feel the urge to try on every dress they could get their hands on.

"Remind me to look for coats, too," Alice said. "It'll start snowing tomorrow."

I nodded. Since I had been a vampire for only four years, which meant I was still fascinated by all the benefits of being immortal, I sometimes forgot how irritating it looked when someone was wearing only light clothes during 10 degree weather. You might think that after such a short while of being a vampire, you could perfectly remember and recall being human, but to be honest: That's not the case. When you wake up after the very last sleep of your existence, you're so overwhelmed by the fact that you're never cold, never tired and never have the urge to do a certain business, that you totally forget what it was like to have those needs. Luckily, I had my family to help me through all of this.

Charlie was helping, too, though inconspicuously. Whenever he noticed that I wasn't acting human enough, he would whisper things like "blink more" or "shift legs" to me. He had never wanted to know what exactly we were but the night of the big revelation, he of course could count one and one together. I could still remember his phone call perfectly, like it happened just yesterday…

_~3 Years ago__, the night of the revelation~_

Carlisle, Jasper, Rosalie and Edward had been in the kitchen for the last half hour, discussing what we should do.

"Do you think there will be a major wipe-out?" Rosalie asked.

"That would be too conspicuous, the Volturi would never risk that," Carlisle said.

"What if they don't care now?" I heard my husband say. "I've read their minds several times, even if they let the people know that we exist, they still are going to punish those who are responsible for the revelation."

I jumped when my cell phone started vibrating by an incoming call. I took a look at the display. _Charlie Home_. I sighed. Alice had warned me about this call an hour ago. Now I regretted that I hadn't asked her what the outcome of this call would be.

I picked up.

"Hello, Dad," I said.

"Bella, I want you to be absolutely honest with me," I heard Charlie hiss at the other end of the line. "You saw the news reports that are floating around everywhere right now, right?"

I took a deep breath. "Yes, I did," I just said.

My father hesitated for a couple of seconds. Then he continued, "I know I said I didn't want to know what's going on with you and the Cullens. But I have to know now."

He hesitated again. "Is that… what you are now? What the Cullens are?" he whispered. "A… a vampire?"

I looked up to see that my whole family, Renesmee, who was sleeping in Emmett's arms, included (Edward must have gone to get her from the cottage without me noticing), was in the living room again. My gaze focused on Edward and Carlisle.

I pushed my shield away as hard as I could. _What should I do?_ I asked my husband.

He and my father-in-law exchanged looks. Then Carlisle nodded. "Tell him," he said.

I dropped my gaze, taking a deep breath.

"Yes," I finally said. "I am a vampire."

For five minutes, there was silence. I waited patiently.

"So," Charlie began, swallowing, "the Cullens have been vampires this whole time?"

"Yes," I answered.

"And you're… you're drinking blood?" my father said, his voice starting to tremble.

"Yes, but not human blood," I said clearly, trying to ease the tension when, suddenly, Carlisle's phone rang.

"It's them," I could hear Alice say.

"Sorry, Dad, could you hang on for a second?" I quickly said while I watched Carlisle picking up his phone.

"Yes?" he said and, a few seconds later, handed the phone over to my sister.

"This is Alice," she said.

"Miss Cullen, master Aro is asking for your presence," I could hear Gianna say. "Please come to Volterra as soon as possible."

"We'll take the next flight to Italy," Alice answered and then hung up.

"You're not going to Volterra alone," Jasper said. "I'm going with you."

"Actually, you all are," Alice said and handed Carlisle his phone back.

Something clicked in my brain.

"No way," I growled. "Not all of us. Renesmee will stay here."

"Bells?" Charlie called out from the other end. "Is something wrong?"

"Dad, can Renesmee stay with you for a while?" I suddenly said.

"Um, sure." Charlie sounded confused. "But why all of a sudden?"

"I'll be there in fifteen minutes," I just said and then hung up.

I walked over to Emmett and carefully picked Nessie up from his arms. Then I signalled Edward to come with me. When I left the house with my daughter, he joined me and we silently made our way to our cottage. There, I put Nessie in her bed and started to pack some clothes and other things my child would need.

Edward, in the meanwhile, got some clothes for us and packed our passports.

When I zipped the bag, Edward picked Renesmee up and we went back to the house.

"The last flight to Italy departs in two hours," Carlisle informed us.

"We'll be there," Edward nodded and we headed for the garage.

We took my Ferrari. During our drive through Forks, I could hear that televisions and radios were on everywhere, shouting out that one of the world's most mysterious and most feared legends had become reality.

Charlie was waiting on the front porch when we arrived. I climbed out of the driver's seat and grabbed Renesmee's bag while Edward lifted her from the backseat.

"Bells, we've gotta talk," Charlie greeted me, shifting nervously, now that he knew what I was.

"Not now," I said. I handed him the bag.

Edward vanished from my side to get Nessie to my room, making Charlie jump at his speed. My father looked after him in astonishment.

"Where are you going?" he asked, turning back to me.

"Italy, " I said curtly. "I don't know yet how long we'll be gone. I packed her clothes for a week."

Charlie jumped again when Edward reappeared next to him.

"Look, Dad," I said apologetically. "I'll explain everything when we're back. I know you have a lot of questions and I will answer all of them, but right now, we're in a hurry."

My Dad sighed.

"Alright," he grumbled.

I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, which made him shudder because of the coldness of my lips and probably me being a bloodsucker, for all that he knew, and we made our way back to my car.

I revved the engine, pulled out of the drive-way and, at full speed, raced toward the Seattle airport.

~x~

I could have sworn my heartbeat was pounding in my ears when I knocked. But when I listened to my body, of course there was nothing. No blood flow, no heartbeat. I was just dead-nervous.

I took a glance at my husband while we waited for my father to open the door. Ironically, he looked as nervous as I felt.

Charlie's footsteps headed for the front door, his heart racing. I guess he was just as nervous as we were.

"Come in," he said, once he had opened the door.

When we entered the living room, Nessie jumped into my arms and reached out her left forefinger to touch my forehead. Pictures of confusion and longing washed over me.

I smiled warmly. "I missed you, too, honey," I said. "Did you have fun with Grandpa and the pack?"

She grinned and nodded. Pictures of Jacob carrying her all across First Beach and her playing games with Seth, Quil and Claire played back in front of my inner eyes.

"Take a seat, guys," Charlie said and gestured toward the couch.

I handed my daughter over to Edward and sat down. The two didn't say anything but I knew they were having one of their quiet conversations again.

My father took a seat in his armchair and looked at my husband and daughter.

"Nessie," he began, "I mean, Renesmee has explained a few things to me while you were gone."

I nodded understandingly.

Charlie rubbed his forehead. "So, she's really your biological daughter?"

I nodded again.

"She told me she was different from you," he said. "She's not a full vampire?"

"No," I said. "I was human when I carried her and gave birth to her. She's half-human, half-vampire."

"But how come she's so big already? She can't be older than nine or ten months."

I exchanged looks with Edward.

"Well," he began, "half-breeds are different. A human who was turned to a vampire has already been a certain age when the change happened. Half-vampires grow to a certain physical age within a couple of years and then stop."

He continued explaining all the features he had found out from his researches. Renesmee's heartbeat, her eating habits, her growth. He even mentioned Nahuel and what happened to his mother. Here, my father sucked in a breath of shock.

He turned his head to me.

"But you survived," he stated. "You made it."

"Just barely," Edward said in a numb voice. He, too, looked at me. "Once Renesmee was out of her body, I started injecting my venom to all important parts of her blood system. It was a really close call that it spread out in time."

I knew this look. He had had the same look on his face when I had found him in Volterra last year. For the first couple of hours of my turning, he had thought it had been too late. That I had been too injured for the venom to heal and change me.

I took his hand in comfort and smiled at him.

"How old are you, Edward?" Charlie suddenly asked. "I've been wanting to ask you this for the past couple of weeks."

Edward chuckled. I couldn't help my amused smile, either.

"Chief Swan, I was born on June 20 in 1901," my husband answered. "In 1918, when I was 17, I was dying of Spanish Influenza. Carlisle was the doctor at our hospital at that time. That's how he found me. And changed me."

Charlie frowned. "Carlisle changed you? Then how old is he?"

Edward sighed. "That's actually a very long story."

"Night's still young," my father said dryly.

My love chuckled again. "Alright."

And he told him everything. Carlisle's story, how he made the choice to only drink animal blood, how he found Edward, how Mrs Masen begged him to save her son and how the change finally happened. Then he continued with the story of how Carlisle found Esme and changed her, how he thought Rosalie could be Edward's mate and changed her, how Rosalie saved Emmett from the bear and how one day, Alice and Jasper joined their family.

"And now, you're all out in the open?" Charlie said after a couple of minutes of silence.

I looked at Edward.

"Actually, no," my love said.

"You see, Dad," I began, "those vampires on TV… they're not like us."

My father frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Well, for one, we don't have fangs," Edward said.

"The sun doesn't harm us," I continued.

"Stakes are no threat to us."

"As are garlic, crucifixes and holy water."

"Woah, woah, woah," Charlie interrupted, hands raised. "You mean, all the legends are not true?"

"In our case, they're not." Edward shrugged. "But from what we've heard so far, to these other vampires, they are. My… our kind can not be killed by humans. The others, it seems, can."

"So you're saying, the revelation-?" Charlie started.

"We had no idea something like this would happen," my husband said. "We had no idea these vampires existed. We've never met one of them before. Alice didn't see it coming, either. We don't know, why."

"Alice can see the future," I explained when I saw my Dad's questioning face. "Some vampires have special abilities. Jasper, Alice's boyfriend, can control emotions." I looked at Edward, smiling. "And Edward can read minds."

Charlie's eyes widened. "Do you mean you've been reading my mind all the time?" he growled.

Edward shifted uneasily. "Um, yes," he mumbled.

Dad let himself fall into the backrest, clearly overwhelmed. "I don't believe it," he gasped. "As if vampires weren't enough already." Suddenly, he frowned, his eyes on my face. "Hold on," he murmured. He leaned forward again, his eyes locked with mine. "If some vampires have abilities, then… do you have one, too, Bells?"

"Um, yes, Chief Swan, she does," Edward said, a proud grin on his face. "Your daughter is a shield."

Charlie blinked. "Come again?"

"I'm immune against abilities that mess with the mind," I quickly said. "Edward, for example, can't read my mind."

"Oh, it's a lot more than that," Edward chuckled. "She can shield not only herself against mental attacks, she can also expand her shield to a large group of people."

My father nodded in astonishment. Then he cleared his throat and said, "So, what's the deal now with the revelation? These… other vampires are out in the open but you're not?"

We nodded.

"Our… leaders decided we stay hidden," Edward said. "So I'm gonna have to ask you to keep our secret."

"Your leaders?" Charlie looked from Edward to me. "Is that why you were in Italy? Are these leaders there?"

"Yes," I confirmed. I gave him a brief summary of what had happened in Volterra.

"Synthetic blood?" Charlie barked out a laugh. "Are you serious? And you are supposed to drink that?"

"Well, we don't have to. Like I said before, my family only hunts animals," Edward explained. "But the ones of our kind who are following our… natural diet have to either drink that _True Blood_ or be extremely careful while hunting. Either way, the future won't be easy for our kind."

We stayed quiet for a few minutes.

"We have to make arrangements," Edward mumbled.

I looked at him. "What do you mean?"

He cocked his head. "We can't go on the way we used to. Before the revelation, people just thought we looked strange with our pale skin and our eye color. Now, people will get suspicious. Remember that woman who sat in our row on our way home?"

I thought back to our plane ride from Florence to Chicago. There had been a middle-aged woman in our row who had eyed us over the whole flight. I nodded.

"She was wondering if we were really human," he said. "Plus, we took the night flight. _There could be plenty of them here and we would have no clue _she thought."

He hesitated for a few seconds.

"We have to look more human," my husband concluded. "We have to give it the full program."

I groaned. Full program meant we had to wear contacts. I hated contacts, it had been annoying enough to have to wear them around Charlie. Not today, though. He knew what I was, so contacts were unnecessary.

"Alice already has an idea," Edward said.

I raised my head in surprise. "How do you know?"

"She told me when you were hunting with Esme and Rose," he answered. "You probably won't like it but I'm afraid we won't have a choice."

I sighed. "Tell me when we're home." I looked at Dad. "Do you have any more questions for now?"

"Just one," Charlie nodded. "You're gonna have to leave soon, don't you? And you're gonna have to move often because of Nes-… Renesmee?"

We nodded.

"Alright," my father grunted. "Then promise me just one thing. Before every relocation, come back to Forks and visit me."

Edward and I exchanged looks.

"Dad," I said. "Um, there's something you should know about the Quileutes."

"Yeeah," Charlie groaned. "Billy told me. Whenever one or several of your kind enter the Olympic Peninsula, the fever breaks out. I get it, you don't want that. However, Billy, Jacob, Sam and I have talked about that already. They said it's going to happen anyway, eventually, but they'd rather have you as the trigger than some other vampire."

My husband and I looked at each other in amazement. The pack would agree to this?

"You can call Jake if you don't believe me," Dad stated and stood up. He took a look at his watch. "Anyway, it's getting late for an old man like me. And unlike you guys, I need sleep. And not just me, it seems."

He pointed at Renesmee who was fast asleep in Edward's arms.

I smiled warmly.

_~Present~_

"Do you think we have everything?" Alice asked.

Nessie and I opened our bags and examined our items.

"I think so," my daughter said. "We have dresses, make-up, accessories and coats. I think that's it."

A smile spread out on my sister's face. "Alright, then! Friday can come!"


	18. Chapter 17: Nighttime CleanUps

**A/N: **Merry belated Christmas! Did you guys have a good one? :) Enjoy the new chapter! :)

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**Chapter 17: Nighttime Clean-Ups**

I couldn't believe I hadn't thought about this earlier. I knew about the connection between a vampire and its Maker and yet, I had forgotten that my possibly best connection to Bill was living just right across the cemetery.

The watch in my car radio said it was two o'clock in the morning when I pulled into Bill's driveway. The lights above the front porch and in the living room were lit so she had to be home.

I turned off the engine and climbed out of my car. While I walked up to the doorstep, I tried to figure out how I should approach this without sounding like I only cared about Bill but not about her.

When I knocked, there was no answer. Confused, I knocked again. Still no answer.

"Jessica?" I called out, trying to catch a sound that would tell me she had heard me but it was still silent.

I checked if the door was locked. It wasn't, so I turned the doorknob and opened it.

"Jessica, are you home?"

It was quiet in the house and apart from the light in the living room, it was dark. The living room was empty, as was the kitchen. Although I couldn't imagine her to be still sleeping, I checked the hidey-hole in the store cupboard but that was empty, too.

I was about to leave the house to get back to my car when I finally heard something. It was a very low sob. I pricked up my ears and tried to figure out where the sound came from. Eventually, I slowly walked up the stairs to the upper floor. The sobbing became louder while I approached the second-to-last door, the one to the bathroom, on the left side of the hallway. The door stood ajar but the lights were switched off.

When I finally reached it, I took a deep breath and then pushed it open. I couldn't see very well in the dark, so I flipped the light switch.

When I saw what was on the floor, I let out a shriek of horror.

Jessica was sitting on the edge of the bathtub, bloody tears flowing down her cheeks and her eyes narrowed in desperation. I could immediately see, why.

Three male human bodies lay sprawled across the floor, all of them drained of their blood. The floor tiles had bloody splotches all over them, most of them already dried.

This would take a while to clean up, I noticed on the side before I stepped over the corpses and sat down next to the red-haired, teenage vampire.

Jessica didn't seem to have noticed me and kept sobbing. I started rubbing her back to comfort her and looked at her, my face full of concern.

When she still hadn't said a word a couple of minutes later, I cleared my throat.

"Sweety, what did you do?" I asked her in my calmest voice.

Her voice shook terribly. "I-I don't know," she stuttered. "I was so upset w-when Hoyt b-broke up with me, I don't know what got i-into me."

"Hoyt broke up with you?" I said, surprised. "Oh, honey, I'm so sorry."

Jessica sobbed again. "Well, and I went to that bar a couple of weeks ago, because I was _so_ hurt and angry, and this guy walked in and started flirting with me and everything and I ended up going with him to his truck and we started making out and then... then... it just got over me, this guy wanted to have sex and next thing I knew, my fangs were out and I was feeding on him!" She growled loudly. "Geez, where is fucking Bill when you need him? He should teach me things like this!"

"But, honey," I interrupted her, "Bill wanted you to drink _True Blood_, not to hunt and kill humans-"

"Yes," she turned to face me, her expression impatient, "but he should have taught me control first! Instead of ignoring real human blood, he should have taught me to first control myself! I mean, I don't even know what I should with them, how to get rid of them!"

She made a half-hearted gesture toward the corpses.

"Don't worry about that right now," I said while I took both her hands into mine. "I'll help you with that. So, you killed the first guy in his truck but what about the other two?"

"The second guy was the owner of a small drug store out on Interstate 20," she said, pointing to one of the men. "I wanted to buy some _True Blood_ because ill's stock is empty, and this guy was really rude and said a lot of hurtful things about me and other vampires and I just flipped. And the third was some guy who was just at the wrong place at the wrong time."

She looked at me desperately. "What am I supposed to do, Sookie?"

I thought about it for a couple of minutes. Then I said, "I think we should call someone who has a little more experience with this."

Jessica frowned. "Like who?"

I pulled my phone out of my purse and punched in the number I had been calling so often recently. They picked up after the second ring.

"_Fangtasia_, the Bar with a Bite, how can I help you?" I heard Pam's smoky voice answer.

"Hello, Pam, it's Sookie," I said.

I could almost see Pam's eyes roll when she replied dryly, "Hello, Sookie, to what do I owe the pleasure of your call?"

I explained the situation to her. "Can you come over? Bill's not here and I'm not a vampire, I'm not much help here. She really could use some advice."

I waited jittery for her to answer. After a few moments, she finally sighed and said, "Fine. I'll be there in twenty minutes." She hung up.

"She's coming to help us?" Jessica asked.

I nodded and punched in another number. It rang five times until my brother answered.

"'lo?" Jason said sleepily.

"Hey, Jason, do you have anything I can bury something with deep in the ground?" I said quickly.

"Something to... _what_?"

I had clearly woken him from a deep slumber. He sounded completely drowsy. I repeated my words over and over until he had finally understood everything.

"And you want me to bring them over _now_?" he moaned. "Can't that wait 'til tomorrow?"

"No, I need them now," I said impatiently. "Please?"

"Ok, ok," he gave in. "I'll be right over, Sook."

"Thanks, Jason," I said and smiled brightly. When I hung up, I looked at Jessica and assured her, "See, everything's gonna be fine. Now, let's get yourself cleaned up first."

I offered her my hand and pulled her up. I drowned a washcloth in water and started wiping the bloody tears off her face. She just stood there, letting me work. After a while, a thought seemed to have occurred to her.

"I just realized I have no idea why you're here, Sookie," she said wonderingly, while I carefully cleaned the regions around her eyes. "You didn't find Bill, did you? You told Pam he was still gone."

I shook my head. "No," I said. "I was hoping you could tell me if you've heard something from him. You know, in some vampire-Maker way. I know from Eric that vampires have some sort of bond to their Makers, that the makers can send messages to them somehow. I don't know how that works but I thought, maybe Bill did something of the sort."

Now Jessica shook her head slightly. "I didn't even know about that," she said grumpily. "Bill really sucks as a Vampire Dad. There's still so much I have to learn about myself."

I couldn't help my amused smile. "I really wonder why that is," I giggled while I wringed out the washcloth. "He should have some practice; after all, he was a Dad when he was human."

The vampire girl looked at me in amazement. "Really?" she said, an unbelieving smile spreading across her face. "He had children?"

"Yeah," I said and continued cleaning her face.

"It must have been hard for him not to be able to see them again when he was turned," she said, lost in thought. I knew she was thinking about her family. If I had been able to read the minds of vampires, I wouldn't need to do it in order to figure that out.

"Does he know how their lives turned out?" she continued.

"Hmm, I don't know," I shrugged. "He never told me much about them, just that he had children."

Jessica's face was clean again, so we went downstairs to wait for Pam and Jason to arrive.

I filled her in about everything I knew about Bill's case and we discussed possible kidnappers. The fact that it must have been a completely different kind of vampire was a real puzzle to both of us.

Then Jessica told me about the fiasco with Hoyt and his mother.

"He really said that?" I asked her and when she nodded, I swore to myself that I would have a nice long chat with Hoyt, next time he came in _Merlotte's_.

And then, finally, we could hear two cars pulling into the driveway. I quickly ran to open the door. Jason had gotten out if his truck, carrying some equipment and now suspiciously glanced over to Pam who climbed out of a black Toyota Celica, her usual "I don't give a fuck" expression on her face.

Since this was a vampire inhabited house, I didn't need to invite her in.

"Hello, Sookie," she stated and looked around. After sniffing the air a little, she said, "I take it the corpses are upstairs?"

"Yes, in the bathroom," I confirmed and she vanished in vampire speed. I greeted Jason quickly and told him to store the equipment in the living room for now. Then Jessica and I followed Pam upstairs, Jason on our heels.

"That's some mess you created," Pam greeted us when we arrived at the door. "Good thing Eric decided to get you back to your Maker. I really wouldn't have been in the mood to clean up after you every night."

"It's not like I wanted this!" Jessica protested.

"Holy... _fuck_, was that you?" Jason gasped, who had just looked over our heads to see what he had been called here for, and looked at Bill's protégée.

The girl winced and nodded.

"Why did you do that, why did you kill them?" he started asking but I cut him short.

"Can we get to the part where we dispose of them?" I said, looking around. "I really would like to have this cleaned up before going home."

"Of course," Pam smirked. "You, boy, you've got some tools with you? Go to the cemetery, pick some spot where people usually don't pass and start digging. I'm gonna get my raincoat. I don't want my dress to get stained."

I rolled my eyes, grabbed Jason's arm and pulled him after me toward the staircase and down the steps. We got the equipment, two shovels, from the living room and then went outside. The air was cold and we could see our warm breath coming out of our mouths and noses. Getting down to the cemetery took only a minute and we found a free spot that was half-hidden by an oak not long after, too.

Digging turned out to be an almost impossible matter. The ground was so hard that we already had difficulties to just getting the shovels one inch in, let alone dig a hole. In the end, we had to wait for Pam and Jessica, who carried the corpses out together. Pam really had put on a long raincoat and she reluctantly agreed to dig the hole herself.

Finally, after what felt like half an hour, the hole was finished, Pam threw the corpses in and then refilled the grave with soil.

We went back to the house and Pam and Jessica got themselves two bottles of _True Blood_ while I got a mop, a damp cloth and a bucket of hot water with cleaning compound in it and headed upstairs with my brother. We cleaned the bathroom in silence at first but eventually started talking. He asked me about Bill and how I was doing. I got from his thoughts that he had had a talk with Bill in Texas and that he really liked him now, despite of all the prejudices and doubts he had had when I had started seeing Bill.

"I really hope you find him soon," he assured me when the floor was finally stainless and we flushed the dirty water down the toilet. "I'm sure he's okay, don't worry too much."

I nodded, touched by his concern.

We went back downstairs to find Pam and Jessica in deep talk about being a "baby vampire".

I yawned deeply and looked at the clock in the kitchen when I put the cleaning tools back where they belonged. It was now well past three.

I grabbed my jacket and my purse which I had left in the living room before I had gone cleaning, said goodbye to the two vampires and was just about to leave the house when Pam stopped me by saying, "Don't you want me to greet Eric from you?"

I turned around and looked in her face which had an amused grin on it.

"He will be very disappointed when I tell him you didn't mention him at all," she continued.

"Sure," I said rather coldly. "Tell him to get his Viking ass up and find my boyfriend."

I could feel my cheeks turn slightly pink and stomped quickly out of the front door, Jason behind me. Pam's laugh followed me to my car.

Jason put the shovels back in his pick-up truck and climbed into the driver's seat.

"I'll see you around, Sook," he said with a smile on his face. Then he revved the engine and turned the car around. The back lights of the truck vanished into the night.

I hovered by the side of my own car for a couple of moments. Then I pulled my driver's door open and let myself sink onto the seat. After I had revved the engine and turned on the heater, I looked outside the window and saw to my delight the first pleasant thing that had happened in two weeks. It had started snowing.


	19. Chapter 18: Movie Night Part 1

**A/N:** Sorry for the long wait, everyone! As you can see, this is a two-part chapter. Let's see how many of you can already guess what "Movie Night Part 2" will be about when you finish this one. x3

Enjoy your reading and please be so kind to leave a review when you're done!

PS: I made myself a Twitter background that's based on my three running FFs here. If you want, you can check it out here: http(colon)(slash)(slash)twitpic(dot)com(slash)4d6ur3

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**Chapter 18: Movie Night**** [Part 1]**

„Do we really have to do this? I haven't been to a movie theater in ages."

"Even better," I grinned. "Come on, honey, we both know that we need something to distract ourselves with. And what could be better than a movie night?"

Jessica put on a large pout and crossed her arms. "God, how much I hate it that glamouring doesn't work on you. I would let you forget about this idea like this!" She flicked her fingers symbolically.

I rolled my eyes. "Sweety, it's Friday night. I'm not gonna let you sit in the house all night, so you can bathe in self-pity about your break-up. We're gonna go out, watch some movie that looks incredibly bad, laugh about it and have a good time." I tapped my foot, waiting for her to answer.

She sighed. "Fine."

I smiled widely and clapped my hands together. "Great! Now, let's hurry, the movie starts in forty-five minutes."

I clasped her hand and pulled her toward my car. She stumbled after me like a teenage human that was forced to come along to their parents' wedding anniversary dinner. Seemed like some things didn't change when you became immortal.

I unlocked the car and pushed the red-haired vamp into the passenger's seat before I settled down in the driver's seat and revved the engine.

The drive to Cinema 10 in Monroe didn't take too long. I even found a parking spot fairly quickly.

When we entered the theater and bought our tickets, we had about ten minutes left until the movie would start.

"Do you want some _True Blood_?" I asked Jessica when I went to the snack bar to get some coke and popcorn.

She nodded and followed me.

"Hi, I'll have a small diet coke and sweet popcorn, please," I told the guy behind the counter.

"Sure thing, sweetie," he said and added in his thoughts, _Anything you want._

I kept my polite smile in place and waited until he handed me my order. "Thank you," I said.

_My pleasure, baby, I even added my phone number as a bonus_, the guy thought while he turned to Jessica. "And what can I get you?" _Sweet Lord, look at those lips, she's like a ginger Snow White!_

I suppressed a growl and tried to ignore his mind.

"Um," Jessica hemmed and bent a little forward, whipping a bit up and down like she needed to pee. "I'll have _True Blood_, please. Two parts O negative to one part B positive, if that's possible."

The guy's face went blank, as went his thoughts. Then his mind started screaming.

_Holy Godmother, she's a bloodsucker? Oh, please, don't kill me! Ok, just relax, Johnny, just give her what she ordered, then everything will be fine!_ "But of course, sweetheart," he said, his voice trembling slightly, trying to keep up his nervous smile.

Jessica shot me a hurt look. I gently rubbed her arm. "Ignore him," I whispered.

"Here you go," Johnny said two minutes later, handing Jessica the capped plastic cup and a straw. "That'll be eleven dollars and forty-five cents."

I paid him and we headed to Auditorium 4. We had seats in the back half, with a good middle view at the screen. Almost all other seats were taken. The commercials had already started, so we sat down and chatted a little.

Apart from Jessica, there had to be three other vampires in the audience, because I noticed two blank spots three rows behind ours and one in the first row.

Finally, the lights were dimmed and the opening credits to the romantic comedy started.

I was just about to shut out all minds around me when I noticed a familiar buzzing two rows before us. I looked around the woman in the seat in front of me, only to find Seth Clearwater in the seat before hers. He was sitting next to a girl of about fourteen years with long wavy hair; I couldn't tell the exact color in the lights of the movie projector. It must have been brown or something similar.

She was whispering something to the girl next to her, a petite young woman with a pixie haircut. Their thoughts were a little dizzy, like I couldn't get a perfectly clear connection. I could receive them a lot clearer than the thoughts of shifters and Weres, but weaker than humans'. Although the younger girl came in fairly clearer than the elder, even she seemed to have a little white noise to cover her thoughts. Seth and Jacob had said they had become friends with two siblings who had also been new to their school because they just had moved to Shreveport from another state. Could that be an explanation why I couldn't read them as well?

Not impossible, yet unlikely. My telepathic abilities had been just as good in Texas as they had been here. Or could there be a difference in signal strength between northern Americans and southern Americans? I didn't know which state their friends had moved to Louisiana from, so that was just a total guess.

_I wonder if Alice and uncle Jazz will kiss tonight_, the younger girl thought. She looked around the pixie, who I presumed was Alice, to the man next to latter. "Uncle Jazz" had chin-long, curly blond hair and seemed fairly uninterested in the movie, because he kept glancing at Alice.

_So far so good_, the girl giggled in her mind and then glanced to the couple next to "uncle Jazz". _And what about Ed and Alice's sister?_

I followed her gaze. Ed (short for Edward? Edwin? Edmund?), like Jazz, didn't pay much attention to the movie, but to the dark-haired girl on his right; her head was turned to the screen, so I couldn't see her face.

_Beautiful_, I could hear Ed say in his mind, also covered by a thin blanket of white noise.

It was like listening to a radio program, the signal of which hadn't been adjusted correctly. It was really confusing. Maybe they were supes? With every passing minute, I doubted more and more that they were fully human. They could be neither shifters nor Weres, the difference between Seth and the other five people was too obvious. They also couldn't be vampires; vampires didn't have any live brain waves for me to receive, so they left holes like Jessica and the other three vampires in the room. But how many other possibilities were left? Maybe I should ask Pam, Alcide or Sam what other supernatural creatures were out there.

The dark-haired girl next to Ed turned her head to face him. When realization struck me, I gasped in shock.

"Are you okay, Sookie?" Jessica whispered to me, a worried look on her face.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I whispered back and threw her an assuring smile.

After a few seconds of hesitation, she turned her attention back to the screen, while I looked back to the dark-haired girl.

It was the girl I had seen when Jacob's mind wall had slipped last weekend. Except, she looked a little different from how I remembered her from the Were's mind. Her features were more elegant, better carved out. She was more beautiful than I recalled.

My next gasp was drowned by laughter. I shot a quick look at the screen. The female main character was covered in mud, yelling hysterically with a mad look on her face.

My eyes shot back to the couple, trying to process the reason for my gasp.

_You can really read my thoughts?,_ the girl had just thought and for a second I had thought she had been talking to me. But then _Ed had nodded_.

She was now raising an eyebrow. _Edward Masen, you're full of surprises._

My first guess about his name had been right, I noticed on the side. I saw Edward chuckle.

Did Seth and Jacob know that their new friend was a telepath? They had to; it was the only logical explanation why they hadn't been a bit surprised when they had heard that I was able to hear thoughts.

_I wonder if Bella is really enjoying this date. She did hesitate a little long when I asked her out_, Edward pondered in his head and thought back to when he had asked her if she wanted to go out with him.

His memories made me smile. He had to be a really sweet kid, to ask a lady out like that.

_Have you had this ability for long?_ Bella asked him in her head.

I loved her name. It suited her perfectly.

Edward cocked his head, thinking about how long he knew about his ability, and then nodded slowly.

_Are there others like you?_

I tensed a little.

A shrug. Then a nod.

I tensed a little more.

_How many have you met?_

He raised his pointing finger. One. Then he whispered something.

_Different from yours? How so?_

I relaxed a little while Edward whispered something else. Then he leaned into her and whispered something directly into her ear. They both turned around.

I only realized they were looking directly at me when I heard Edward's voice directly in my head. _You know, Miss, listening into someone else's conversation is really impolite._

I jumped at the clearness of his inner voice. Then I put on my most apologizing grin and thought back, _Really sorry. Please enjoy your date._

Edward and Bella grinned when they turned back around. I moved my eyes to the screen and raised my mental block.

I didn't listen in again while I tried to figure out how much of the movie I had missed. Quite much, it seemed, because I was unable to pick up the thread until the movie was summed up at the end.

When the lights turned on again, I picked up my coat and my purse and looked at my watch. It was half past eleven. The auditorium emptied slowly. Seth and his friends reached the exit before us.

Once I was outside the cinema with Jessica, disposing of our trash in the next trash can, I looked around. They were standing about forty feet away. They were talking. Bella and Edward threw me a short look. I froze a little. I probably should apologize properly.

I took a step in their direction when Jessica's cold hand suddenly grasped my arm.

"What are you doing?" she hissed, looking at me closely.

"I accidently listened into that couple's private conversation earlier. The boy is a telepath like me and caught. I wanted to apologize," I explained, confused by her look.

She shot the crowd a dark look and wrinkled her nose. "I wouldn't go there. There is something really funky about their smell."

I breathed out. "I know, it's Seth, he's a were-wolf," I tried to calm her down.

Jessica shook her head. "No, it's not just him. The other five smell really weird."

I frowned and stood still, now that she had my attention. "What do you mean?"

The vampire sniffed. "I haven't smelled anything like them before. But I'm pretty sure they're not human."

I stepped closer to her. "Is there something familiar in their smell?" I whispered. "Like the smell I told you about? You know, the one in Bill's case?"

She inhaled deeply. "I'm not sure. I'm still too young, I don't have enough experience with different smells yet."

I nodded, a little disappointed, and turned around, only to see that they were crossing the street, probably heading for their car. A few seconds later, they vanished behind a street corner.

Sighing deeply, I rummaged in my purse for my car keys.

"Let's go," I said to my vampire friend and headed in the opposite direction, toward my car. Jessica, still looking after Seth and his friends, hesitated a few moments and eventually followed me.

We didn't talk during the drive back to Bon Temps. Jessica seemed to be in deep thought.

"Hey, Sook, can you let me out here?" she asked me when we neared the entry to the _Merlotte's _parking lot. "I think I should go talk to Hoyt. This movie really made me realize how much I love him and how much I don't want to lose him." She smiled a little shyly.

Returning her smile, I pulled into the parking lot and drove up to the bar's front door.

"Thanks, Sookie," she said and hugged me, before opening her car door.

"Good luck!" I called after her and watched her enter _Merlotte's_ after she had waved me good-bye.

I shifted into reverse and headed home. When I walked up to my front door, I noticed a white envelope on the porch floor. Frowning, I climbed the stairs and picked it up.

_To S.S., _it said. I flipped it to see if there was an addressor somewhere. Nothing.

With an uneasy feeling, I entered the house and went to the kitchen with the envelope in my hand. After throwing my keys and my purse onto the kitchen counter, I slowly ripped the paper open and pulled out a piece of paper. Something fell out of the envelope to the floor. I bent down to pick it up and then flipped it over.

My stomach turned to ice. _It was Bill_. A photo of Bill chained up with silver. He only wore pants. The pants he had worn the night he had vanished, I realized. His chest was bare and covered in burn marks.

Unblinking, I slowly turned my gaze to the piece of paper in my other hand. Two sentences were written on it.

_This is merely a Hello, Miss Stackhouse. _

_I know what you are._


	20. Chapter 19: Movie Night Part 2

**A/N:** Hello again! Enjoy the chapter! :D

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**Chapter 19: Movie Night [Part 2]**

„Are you sure you don't wanna come with us, Jake?"

"Nah, I'm good, pumpkin, you guys have fun watching the chick flick," Jacob said and shot the rest of us a satisfied grin.

We all rolled our eyes while Renesmee put a disappointed pout on her face.

Jake had been complaining the whole week because we wouldn't let him come with us to our movie night triple date. We had decided to tease him and then let him come at the last second. This plan however, was disrupted today after school, when we had drawn who would get to pick the movie. Jacob's complaints had stopped the second Nessie had drawn the longest straw.

Whenever my daughter got to pick a movie, we all knew what that meant. Her favorite movie genre were romantic comedies; more so, the extremely cliché and cheesy kind with weak dialogues, half-hearted jokes and a lot of ridiculous tears.

And now we were the ones who got teased.

There was a movie that Nessie had wanted to see all summer but Edward and I had always refused to go with her. We had always tricked her during drawings, so that either Edward or I had always picked the win.

Alice had stopped us from doing it this time. She didn't like cheating at fair drawings.

And so, we had had a drawing that had been absolutely fair and square. And our sister had come to regret stopping us. Apart from Renesmee, the dislike of cheesy romantic comedies was something our whole family had in common. Edward and I had jokingly wondered several times what we had done wrong.

Jacob walked us out. Edward would take Nessie, Seth and Jasper in his Volvo while I would ride with Alice in her Porsche.

"Have fun," my best friend grinned and walked over to the truck Mr Herveaux had lent him and Seth. "Alcide and I are gonna have a real men's movie night, with _Die Hard_, _Terminator_ and any other action movie we can rent. See ya!"

We could still hear his barking, gleeful laughter when we pulled out of the drive-way and sped down the street to head to Interstate 20. Cinema 10 in Monroe was the only movie theater in the area that still screened the movie Nessie wanted to watch.

With our driving skills, we reached the neighboring town in record time. We parked two streets from the cinema and walked the rest of the way. When we bought our tickets, we had about fifteen minutes until the movie, or rather the commercials, would start. Seth and Nessie bought a large _Mountain Dew_ and some cheese Nachos for them to share.

"Nothing for you guys?" the snack guy asked.

"We already ate dinner," Edward said.

It wasn't exactly a lie. It had been Edward and my turn to hunt this week. Knowing that we wouldn't have time tonight, we had gone last night instead, to a wildlife refuge that was about thirty miles northwest of Shreveport. We had dumped the cadaveric in the nearby lake.

Music was still playing when we settled down in our seats in Auditorium 4. Most of the seats were already filled. We tensed when we realized that three classic vampires were in the room, one in the front row and two others five rows behind ours.

"Don't worry, the humans around us cover our scents for the most part, we won't catch their attention," Edward whispered so low that only we could hear it.

I relaxed and leaned back in my seat. Edward smiled at me. We made some small talk about human things; school, homework, celebrity gossip, music and other things.

Then suddenly, two minutes into commercials, I could hear Seth turn around in his seat and suck in a breath of surprise.

"Bella, push your shield away," Edward hissed in vampire speed, not taking his eyes away from me.

I frowned and obeyed. _What's wrong?_ I asked in my head.

"Don't think to me, use ventriloquism," he said without moving his mouth and gave me a short nod over his shoulder. "The human telepath Seth and Jacob met last week is here. Sookie Stackhouse. Two rows behind us, five seats to your left."

My eyes flickered over to the spot he had described. A blonde woman was just sitting down two seats behind Seth. She was talking to a ginger-haired girl; a vampire, I realized. The girl was holding a capped plastic cup with a familiar smell in her hand. _True Blood_. Two different blood types mixed together; O negative and B positive, if my nose was correct.

"That stupid guy was scared of me, wasn't he?" the vampire just asked, looking sour.

"Don't worry about him, honey," Sookie said. Her voice was nice and comforting. She reminded me on Esme a little.

"I didn't see her coming," Alice mumbled from her seat, three seats to my left.

I looked at her. Her face was blank.

"The future blacked out?" Jasper asked, looking at her worryingly. "Why didn't you say so before?"

His wife shook her head. "That's just it, it didn't black out, not like when I tried to see the wolves in the past. I just didn't see her. It's like... it's like she doesn't exist."

We all frowned. I turned my head back to Sookie and listened. She had a normal heartbeat. I breathed in a deep breath. Under her vanilla perfume, I could smell human. Human with a touch of strawberries.

"Can you hear her?" I asked Edward.

He nodded, knowing what I meant. "She hasn't noticed us yet. Jasper?"

To our confusion, he shook his head. "I can't feel a thing." He turned to Seth and raised his voice enough so that the were-wolf could hear him. "Are you sure she can read our thoughts? You said she can't hear vampires, what makes you think she can hear us?"

Seth shrugged. "I just thought, with the others being so different from you, she might be able to."

"Vampires are holes in her mind," Edward said, still looking at me. "Black spots. She just noticed the three classics."

"What should we do?" Nessie asked.

Edward and Alice pondered for two seconds, having one of their conversations none of us were able to understand.

"Use vampire volume and speed and don't move your lips. Make your primary thoughts secondary and think about inconspicuous things," Edward said and smiled a little nervously. "We're on our first dates, remember?"

We looked at the screen and waited for the movie to start. No one around us had noticed our secret conversation.

One of the great advantages of being a vampire was that we could have more than one thought at the same time. With a little concentration, we were able to talk about one thing and primarily think about something entirely different.

Alice was still stiff, I noticed. I didn't blame her. I was wondering myself how it was possible for her ability to overlook someone entirely. In the past few years, she had spent the most time in Forks out of all of us, spending a lot of time with the wolves; trying to find a way to see events in which the La Push guys were involved.

She had gained the ability to look around them, and also Renesmee, a little. Now, instead of everything being black, she could at least get a basic idea of what was going to happen.

"She just recognized Seth," Edward said right after the opening credits started.

"Can she hear us?" Nessie asked. She wasn't very good at ventriloquizing, so she made it look like she was casually whispering something to Alice.

"Hold on," my husband said and looked at me like a teenage boy who couldn't take his eyes from his date.

One and a half seconds later, he said, "She can hear us. A little dizzily, but she can hear us."

I didn't take my eyes off the screen and patiently waited for more.

"She's wondering where we come from, she knows we're from another state but not which." He chuckled a few minutes later. "Good one, Renesmee."

"What did she think?" I asked.

"That she's wondering if Alice and _uncle Jazz_ will kiss tonight."

I suppressed a snort. I loved it when they called him "uncle Jazz". It made him sound like a cool teddy bear. I tensed when I felt my shield retreat a little. I could see Edward's face spin to me out of the corner of my eye.

"What's wrong?" he asked, caution in his voice.

"My shield," I said, narrowing my eyes slightly. "It's been almost twenty-five minutes since I pushed it away. My record at the moment is forty minutes. I can try holding it back a little longer but it will snap back eventually. Can't you do something?"

He thought about it for a moment and then said, "Her thoughts just wandered from Alice and Jasper to us. Think something like _You can read my mind?_ when I tell you to."

"Are you sure you wanna do this, Edward?" Jasper asked.

"Yes." His voice was sincere. Then he frowned a little. "She thinks we might be... what's a supe?"

"Seth, what's a supe?" Nessie whispered.

"Short for supernatural creature," Seth whispered back.

I turned my head and heard a gasp. Edward froze. Putting on a smile like I hadn't noticed anything, I asked, "What is it?"

"She recognized you," Edward breathed, trying to steady his face.

I almost frowned. "What?"

"She saw your face in Jake's head," he continued, irritated. "A memory of you being human. And she notices the difference between your human self and how you look now."

"Oh, Jake," I sighed and felt my shield shudder again. "Edward."

"Ok, do it," he said.

_You can really read my thoughts?_ I thought to him.

Edward nodded.

Sookie's next gasp was covered by laughter. I didn't pay attention to what was so funny.

I raised an eyebrow, like I was surprised. _Edward Masen, you're full of surprises._

My husband chuckled. "Now she's wondering if Jacob and Seth know about my gift. I'm wondering if you're enjoying this date. I'll show her how I asked you out."

A few seconds passed. The crooked smile broke over his face. "She thinks I'm a really sweet kid. And she called you a lady."

_Have you had this ability for long?_ I thought further, trying not to look over to her to see her reactions to my thoughts.

"She loves your name," he said before he cocked his head and nodded. "Ask if I know about others like me."

I did and he shrugged and nodded again.

"Oh, now she's getting nervous," he stated.

_How many have you met?_

He raised one finger. "Pretend I told you that person's telepathy was different and you're asking why."

_Different from yours? How so?_

"And now I'm telling you about Aro's ability a little," he whispered, his lips now moving. "And I'm telling you a secret."

Edward leaned closer to me and whispered in my ear, "Now we can turn around to look at her. I caught her listening in."

My mouth twitched in amusement and I followed his movement.

"I'm telling her how rude it is to listen in," he ventriloquized and I could see her jump. "She says she's sorry and that she wants us to enjoy our date."

We both grinned and turned back around.

A moment later, Edward said, "Like I thought, she can block people's thoughts out. And pretty well at that. You can relax now."

He had barely finished the sentence when my shield had already snapped back around me. "Just in time," I breathed, relieved.

The rest of the movie was actually enjoyable. The flick wasn't great but exactly what I needed to relax.

We were among the first to exit the theater when it was over.

"Well, one thing is certain," Alice stated. "This woman can't be human. At least not entirely."

"I noticed a strawberry undertone in her scent," I told her. "But apart from that, she smelled human to me. Her heartbeat is normal, too."

Sookie and her vampire friend exited the theater. Edward and I looked over to her.

She was looking back at us.

"She wants to come over to apologize about earlier," Edward told me.

Indeed, the blonde took a step toward us when her friend stopped her by grabbing her arm.

"What are you doing?" we could hear her hiss.

"I accidently listened into that couple's private conversation earlier. The boy is a telepath like me and caught me. I wanted to apologize," Sookie responded.

"The girl's name is Jessica," my husband whispered.

Jessica eyed us darkly.

"She thinks the spray tan smells suspicious. She can smell our own scents underneath it," he continued.

"I wouldn't go there. There is something really funky about their smell," the ginger said.

"I know, it's Seth, he's a were-wolf," Sookie said.

Jessica shook her head. "No, it's not just him. The other five smell really weird."

I could see Sookie frown while Edward tensed. "She's getting suspicious."

"What do you mean?" Sookie and I said at the same time.

Then I heard Jessica sniff in our direction. "I haven't smelled anything like them before. But I'm pretty sure they're not human."

"Oh," I mouthed.

Sookie stepped closer to the girl and whispered, "Is there anything familiar in their smell? Like the smell I told you about? The one in Bill's case?"

"Bill's the name of her vampire boyfriend, right?" I asked Seth. He nodded.

Jessica said, "I'm not sure. I'm still too young, I don't have enough experience with different smells yet."

"Let's go," Jasper suggested.

We left the crowd in front of the cinema and crossed the street. We only spoke again when we had rounded the corner.

"Do you think she suspects us of kidnapping her boyfriend?" Nessie asked.

Edward shook his head. "No, not really. She's desperate for information. She wants to find him, so she's clinging to every piece of suspicion she can get."

A realization dawned on me. "But you know what that means, the only explanation why we're suspected?" I looked around and could see that we were all on the same page.

"Yes," Alice said. "The one who kidnapped Bill Compton has to be one of ours."

"The question is who and why," Jasper confirmed. "Why here? Why this particular vampire?"

"I guess we're going to have to do a little snooping of our own," Edward stated and unlocked his car door.

We agreed. I climbed into the Porsche's passenger seat and waited for Alice to turn the key. A few minutes later, we were back on the Interstate and heading west.

We let Seth out at the street corner to Alcide's house and continued to head home.

Carlisle and Esme were watching a movie on TV when we entered the house.

"How was the movie night?" Esme asked while Carlisle took a sip out of his _True Blood_ bottle.

"It was interesting, that's for sure," Alice said dryly and filled them in on tonight.

"So it was a Cold One," Carlisle said and pondered. "Is there a way to find out for sure?"

"Maybe we can check out the place he was taken from," Jasper suggested.

"Quiet!" Edward suddenly hissed.

I looked at him. And then at Alice. Her face was blank again.

I pushed my shield for a moment. _What is it?_

"Someone's coming," my sister answered in his stead. "A classic."

We waited for a few seconds until Edward said, "Oh. She must be a really fast driver."

We exchanged puzzled expressions. A car pulled up in front of the house. A door was opened and closed. Then we heard lights steps coming up to our front door. It knocked.

Alice loudly stomped to the door and opened it, groaning, "Who is it this l-?"

The vampire flashed inside and let out a triumphant scream.

"I knew it!" Jessica yelled. "I knew you weren't human!"


	21. Chapter 20: Communication

**A/N:** SURPRISE! I was finished a little faster than I thought. :D I hope you like it! Enjoy your reading!

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**Chapter 20: Communication**

„I knew it! I knew you weren't human!" The red-head danced up and down with a gleeful expression on her face.

A few seconds of sheer perplexity passed.

Then Esme said, "May I ask who you are? And why you are busting into our house in the middle of the night?"

I couldn't suppress a smirk at Esme's face. Right now, she was the perfect image of an offended southern American housewife.

"Please," Jessica snorted. "I can only enter a human-inhabited house when I'm invited in and just now, I was able to enter your house without being invited in. Thus..." She took a look around at all of us and concluded, "...you: not human."

Edward and I exchanged looks. This girl was really too clever for her own good. Almost any other vampire would have ripped her apart by now, to prevent her from telling others about us.

"Then was do you think we are?" Jasper asked to our surprise.

Jessica looked puzzled and froze. ""I don't know," she said plainly. "Haven't thought that far yet."

"Hey!" she yelled a second later, looking offended when we snorted and started shaking with laughter. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing," Edward chuckled, rubbing his eyes like he was laughing tears. "It's just... you suspect someone not to be human, drive after them alone to make sure, enter their house without telling anyone where you are and stand right in the middle of those you know are not human without even considering the thought that these non-humans could be able to kill you within the blink of an eye?"

The young vampire's face turned ashen. A few seconds passed until she said, "How do you know I didn't tell anyo-" Something seemed to dawn on her. "Right," she stated. "You're a telepath. Sookie told me."

My husband nodded. "And your name is Jessica."

She nodded. "Jessica Hamby."

He sighed. "I'm Edward Cullen. This is my wife, Bella, and our daughter, Renesmee."

Not only Jessica, but all of us others, too, stared at him.

"Trust me," he murmured to us and continued. "The short one over there is Alice, my adopted sister, and her husband Jasper. And these are sort of our foster parents, Carlisle and Esme."

The eyes of the vampire girl numbly wandered from one face to the next. "What are you?"

We held our breaths.

Edward stepped up to her and looked directly into her eyes. "We are vampires."

Slowly, Jessica shook her head. "Impossible. You look and smell nothing like us."

He turned his head. "Guys."

We didn't need him to say it out loud to know what he wanted us to do. It only took us a few seconds to rub the spray-tan off our arms and faces. The contacts, too, were out in no time.

Jessica sucked in a deep breath at the sight of our eyes.

Edward's and my eyes were freshly golden, those of the others a few shades darker. Carlisle's eyes, as usual, were a bloody orange. Nessie, of course, didn't have to rub off or take out anything.

"We are a vampire race called the Cold Ones. As you can see, we are different from you. And before you ask, no, we don't have fangs. We don't have to be invited in and can't be blocked out of a human-inhabited house. Stakes are useless against us. And as you already noticed, some of us have additional powers."

"We, too," Jessica threw in. "We can glamour people and tell them to do anything we want. And some of us can fly. Like, really, actually fly."

She raised her eyebrows and waited for us to be impressed. And looked naively adorable.

We exchanged amused looks.

"I can see the future," Alice smirked.

The red head's face dropped and she crossed her arms, pouting. "And why are you telling me all this?" she asked dryly. "Clearly you don't want anyone to find out."

"Because you could actually be useful," Edward replied.

Jessica frowned. "How so?"

"Sookie's boyfriend, the vampire who was kidnapped," he said. "We think the culprit might be one of our kind."

"Why would one of yours want to kidnap Bill?" she questioned. "No offense to him, but _Bill_?"

"That's what we would like to find out," Carlisle took over. "We heard he disappeared from a restaurant. Do you know which one?"

She pondered. "Some French restaurant a little out of town, if I'm not mistaken. I don't know the name, though, but it can't be hard to find it. Why?"

"We would like to take a look around there," Carlisle answered. "I don't think the scent of the culprit is still there but maybe we can catch up on something Alcide didn't."

"You mean the were-wolf who's in Eric's debt?" she asked. "How do you know him?"

"Jake and Seth are living with him, they're our friends."

"Papa Carlisle, I think we're losing her," Nessie giggled as Jessica's expression became more and more confused.

She walked over to the vampire and said, "Tell you what, Jess, you tell us everything you know about Bill and Sookie and we will tell you more about us in return. Deal?"

"You don't look like the others, you're different," Jessica stated. "And why did he simply call you his daughter when he called his sister adopted?"

"I will tell you if you accept the deal," my daughter smiled.

The other girl sighed. "Fine. What do you want to know?"

"Well, first of all, who exactly is Bill?" Renesmee asked, taking a step back. "How much do you know about him?"

"Would you like to sit down?" Carlisle offered. "We can stand like this for a week without moving but I don't know if it's uncomfortable for you."

"A whole _week_?" Jessica's eyes widened while my Father-in-Law led her to one of the two armchairs.

Out of politeness, we sat down, too, Nessie on the other armchair, the rest of us on the couch.

"We will answer all of your questions later, dear," Esme reassured the classic and threw her an encouraging smile. "Please continue."

"Well," the girl began, " his full name is William Thomas Compton and he was born sometime in the early 1800s, but I can't remember his exact birth date. As a human, he was a Lieutenant in one of the Louisiana Infantries during the Civil War. He had a wife and I just heard from Sookie that he had children, too. He was made vampire in 1865, while he was on his way home. There's an empty grave on the cemetery between our house and Sookie's."

"Our house?" Edward asked, an amused smile on his face."

She shifted. "Yeah. Bill's my Maker, so I'm living with him. He killed a vampire some time ago and the Magister ordered him to make a new one to replace the 'lost vampire life' or something like that." She rolled her eyes.

"What's a Magister?" Jasper asked her with a frown on his face.

"Uh, I guess the closest description would be something like a judge in a high court or something," she said. "If vampires break the vampire laws they have to go through some kind of vampire trial."

"Sounds familiar," Alice mumbled so low that Jessica couldn't hear it.

"That's how I ended up here," the red head shrugged. "I stayed with Eric and his people for a while in the beginning because I was too much for Bill to handle." She chuckled. "New freedom, new responsibilities and all. When I look at myself from back then now, I have to admit that I was a real pain in the ass."

"What about your family?" Esme asked.

For the first time, Jessica Hamby's face became sad. "I saw them once after I was changed. It almost ended in a massacre. Bill was barely able to stop me. He told me not to go to them but Sookie offered to drive me to watch the house a little from the car but not go in. Eventually, I went in anyway, my mom invited me in. My parents are very religious and they hate everything that goes against God's law. And when they found out I'm a vampire, my dad freaked and tried to hit me again with his belt, so I flipped and nearly killed him. Bill glamoured my little sister to let him in when he arrived and he was able to prevent the worst. He was furious with Sookie for her letting me go there but they made up again when a maenad tried to kill her on our way home. I haven't seen my family since. But I know now that it's better this way. I'm still too new to have all my instincts under control, so I would be a threat to them."

"I'm sorry, honey." My Mother-in-Law went over to her and gave her a hug, sitting down on the armrest.

After a few seconds, Jessica's body began to struggle. "You better let me go if you don't want your shirt to get stained, I just started crying."

Esme immediately pushed her away, held her at arm's length and we all looked at her face, gasping in surprise when we saw it. She could actually cry. Blood instead of actual tears, but still, she was able to cry.

I felt a tinge of jealousy. Don't get me wrong, my life had been wonderful the past few years and I hadn't had any reason to cry so far. We even had told Renee what I was after we had come back from Volterra three years ago because she, like Charlie, had put one and one together. All was well. But still, it would be nice to be able to properly mourn something or someone when the time came.

Alice raced up to the bathroom to get a tissue and was back down in a flash to hand it to Jessica.

The girl quickly wiped the blood off her face, blew her nose (which looked really bizarre on a vampire) and cleared her throat. "I'm alright now. It was hard in the beginning but I'm okay now. Anyway, where was I? Oh, right."

She shifted in the armchair and continued. "I don't know much about the time between Bill's turning and the revelation. But as far as I know, he traveled with his Maker for a while until he decided to leave. Some time along the way, he met Eric and when the revelation happened, he decided to come back to his birth place and live in his family estate. And became a little bit of an underling to Eric, since he's the sheriff."

"I've been wondering this for a while now," Alice cut in. "What exactly is this Eric sheriff of?"

Jessica looked perplex. "Why, Area 5 of course."

When we kept on looking at her questioningly, her gaze flashed around. "Don't tell me you don't know about the American vampire territories and their leaders?"

After a few seconds of hesitation, we shook our heads.

"No. Fucking. Way," Jessica breathed, an unbelieving grin slowly brightening up her face.

"She's happy she knows something we don't," Edward grinned.

"You bet I am!" she said gleefully. "Usually, I'm the one who doesn't know anything, that's why Pam likes to call me 'Baby Vamp Jessica'. Pam's Eric's right hand," she answered our unspoken question.

I giggled. I was starting to like this girl.

'Baby Vamp Jessica' started explaining the vampire territories. "What the humans call the States of America, vampires call the Kingdoms. Every Kingdom has either a king or a queen and is divided into Areas, each of which has a sheriff. Louisiana has a queen but I don't know anything about her. Bill doesn't like talking about her. Area 5 is the general area of Renard Parish, it includes Shreveport here where Eric's headquarters are, Bon Temps where Bill, Sookie and I live and a few other towns around here. A sheriff's responsibility is to keep all the vampires in his area in line and to make sure they don't break any laws. Some of them take their assignments very seriously, others like to keep some loose ends. I guess Eric is something between the two. He knows how to use his authority when he needs to. Most vampires respect him by nature because he's so old. I don't know about you guys, but the older we are, the stronger you can expect us to be. And Eric is extremely old, even for a vampire."

"Humans don't know about the vampire hierarchy, do they?" I asked.

She shook her head. "No. Only a few who are affiliated with vampires on a daily basis, like Sookie."

"How did Bill and Sookie meet?" I asked, curious about another vampire-human relationship.

"Sookie works as a waitress at _Merlotte's_, that's a Bar&Grill in Bon Temps. And Bill just walked in those doors one day and ordered a red whine because _Merlotte's_ didn't have any _True Blood_ back then; Bill was their first vampire customer. I don't know the details but Sookie said something about a couple of drainers who attacked Bill to get his blood that night and she saved him. And when she noticed she can't hear the thoughts of a vampire, there basically was no turning back anymore. They started dating not long after that. Like I already said, they've had their problems and arguments but all in all, I think they fit together wonderfully. Sookie's sweet as hell but she really can kick butt if she needs to. Her parents died in a car crash when she and her brother Jason were little and she's been living in her Gran's house ever since. Jason moved out of Gran's and back into their parents' house when he turned eighteen. Sadly, her Gran was murdered a few months ago by a serial killer who was running around killing women who had friendly contact or sex with vampires. A lot of crazy things are happening here, I'm telling ya. First serial killers, then maenads and now a complete new vampire race. I wonder what's coming next," Jessica finished with a sigh. "Not to forget the two vampires who were killed right outside _Fangtasia_'s, basically right under Eric's nose. And Bill of course."

We shifted uncomfortably by the mention of the two killed vampires but, fortunately, Jessica didn't notice.

"Do you have any idea why someone would want to kidnap Bill?" Carlisle asked the same question the ginger vampire had asked before. "The slightest thing could be helpful, even if you think it's nothing important."

"Nothing that I'm aware of," she denied. "I'm afraid you're gonna have to ask someone who knows Bill better. And I only see three options here: Sookie, Eric or the queen. To be honest, I think Sookie is the safest option here. I can tell you don't want anyone, humans the least, to know about you but unlike Eric, Sookie is not bound by any vampire laws and doesn't have to tell any of the higher authorities about you. She can keep your secret. Vampires can't glamour her for whatever reason, so they can't make her spill, either. I could talk to her for you if you want. I... told her my suspicion earlier, sorry. She knows you're not human."

She glanced around, shyly.

"We know," Jasper said. "We heard you."

"Of course you did," she sighed and scratched her neck in embarrassment.

"It doesn't matter, we can't change it anymore," Carlisle assured her, an understanding smile on his face.

"Hey, Jess," I addressed her Nessie, having an amusing image of the Jessica from Forks in the back of my head. Even their last names sounded similar. Hamby. Stanley. And yet, they were two very different women.

She looked at me.

"Have you noticed anything unusual about Sookie? Something that would make you doubt she's fully human?"

"You mean apart from the fact that she's a telepath and vampire glamouring doesn't work on her?" Jess grinned.

I grinned back. "Exactly."

Her expression turned thoughtful and she pondered for a few minutes.

"Her blood," she finally said. "Her blood smells very sweet and, to be honest, attracts me more than the blood of any other human I've met as a vampire so far. It's like... it's like her blood is a string that's constantly trying to pull me closer, but not exactly in the thirsty kind of way. I mean, that, too, but not just that. It's really hard to describe."

"Actually, it reminds me of a German legend about a man with a pipe who was able to attract rats with his music," Carlisle said. "You know, _The Pied Piper of Hamelin_."

"What's it about, exactly?" Jessica asked, curiosity in her eyes.

The doctor continued, "A town called Hamelin was having a rat plague. One day, a man arrived, a piper whose skills with his pipe were known far and wide. He offered the people of Hamelin to take care of the rats in exchange for a certain amount of money.

They agreed, and so he played his pipe and thousands over thousands of rats followed him out of town and to a river where he made them drown themselves. One rat, however, survived. So when the piper came back to get his reward, the townsmen declared the job invalid and refused him the full amount. The piper left town angrily and swore revenge.

Finally, on one of the town's holidays, he came back and started playing his pipe while the adults were in church and all the children of the town, spellbound by his music, followed him up into the mountains into a cave. Three children were left behind because of three different reasons and these children told the townsmen what had happened. However, the pied piper and the town's children were never seen again."

Silence fell.

Then Jessica said, "Hmm, yeah, I suppose that's a little similar. Not as strong as the piper's music is described but I see your point." Her eyes lit up. "Oh, I just remembered something! Bill told me, when he and Sookie met the crazy maenad for the first time, Sookie was attacked by her. And here's the strange thing. When Sookie tried to push the maenad away, he said, a _light_ came from her hands, like... like some sort of force or something."

"Well, that definitely doesn't sound human. Just saying," Renesmee stated and shrugged when we looked at her. A habit she had taken over from Emmett.

"She's right," Alice nodded. "I've been trying to see Sookie for over an hour now. I get nothing. It's like I'm trying to call a number that's not connected to a phone."

"So what about all of you?" the red head said, looking around. "I held up my end of the deal, now it's your turn."

Nessie stood up and looked at her father. "How much?"

"Leave a few mysteries," he smiled.

My daughter walked over to Jessica, who had a puzzled expression on her face, and sat down on the other armrest. And then she touched her.

Jess jumped and for the next ten minutes, she stared at Jasper's legs without actually seeing them. We waited patiently while Renesmee told her a good part of our story.

"You're _half-human_?" she finally gasped incredulously and stared at my child with wide disbelief. She let her eyes wander. "And you all can walk in the sun, but you _sparkle_? Why the hell do you _sparkle_? That has to be the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard!" She shook with half-hearted laughter. "And you!" she exclaimed, turning to Jasper. "You can-! You can...! You can..."

With every "you can", her voice became calmer and more exhausted. Her eyes drooped a little while she kept looking at my blond brother-in-law with a face that was almost desperate. We broke out in chuckles when she realized Jasper was using his ability on her, trying to struggle against it.

"I think that's enough, uncle Jazz, she'll fall asleep if you keep going," my daughter stated dryly but with an amused smile on her face.

Jessica snapped out of her daze and shook her head like she was trying to shake dust off her hair.

"Okay," she breathed and gathered her thoughts. "So, you're vampires, you sparkle in the sun, you're pretty much indestructible, your males can impregnate human women, yet your females can not conceive any children and you don't sleep, is that correct?"

"That pretty much sums it up, among other things," Edward nodded.

"Why do you freaking sparkle again?" Jessica raised an eyebrow.

"We don't really know," Carlisle chuckled. "We have a theory, though. When a human becomes like us, his skin becomes granite-hard. It's like living stone with every cell being a single facet that reflects light like a prism. But, to be honest, we don't think that's the whole story. We're still working on it."

She nodded thoughtfully. "And... how does a human become like you?"

We hesitated.

"Next time," Alice finally said. "So, will you talk to Sookie for us?"

Jess looked a little disappointed but nodded. "Yes."

"Do us a favor, honey, and don't tell her that we are vampires yet," Esme requested. "If we see the right time, we'll tell her ourselves but for now, she shouldn't know."

"Sure," the ginger accepted and got up from the armchair. "I suppose it's good-bye for now, then?"

Esme wrote down her cell number on a piece of paper and handed it to her. "Call when you've spoken to her. Tell her we're willing to come to _Merlotte's_ if she's more comfortable with witnesses around her."

"I will." Jessica put the paper in her pocket and we walked her to the front door. "Well, I suppose I have to bring Jason Stackhouse his car back. See ya then."

She walked out on the front porch, down the steps and across the lawn to a pick-up truck that was parked on the street. A few seconds later she was in it, started the engine and drove away. We gazed after her for a moment and then closed the door.

So, we would be meeting a most-definitely-not-fully-human human soon and, hopefully, find out why one of us cold ones would kidnap one of them classics. I had a feeling the next few weeks should be very interesting, indeed.

* * *

I took the "sparkling" explanation Stephenie gave in an interview once here. My own explanation of the sparkling, which will show up in my story some time in the future, however, will be different. I came up with it when I asked myself, before I read Stephenie's explanation, what could possibly be the reason for why they sparkle. I don't know if my idea is really creative or not but I kinda like it. It won't show up for quite a while yet, though, so don't think about it for now. xD I hope you liked the chapter.

Btw, I had an idea. I know a lot of time almost always passes before I finish a new chapter and it has to be a little difficult to catch up with what happened so far sometimes. So I thought I could add something like a "Previously on Coming Out" where I shortly sum up what happened in the last 1 or 2 chapters. Would that help you?

See ya next time! :)


	22. Chapter 21: Revelations

**A/N: **SO close! I promised March and it's still March in the US. :D Sorry that it's the last hours of March, though. :') I hope you will like this chapter. The beginning was so easy to write but the middle was quite hard. Although I'm mostly sticking to the TV show when it comes to True Blood, you will find that I'm sticking more to the books with the fairy thing, simply because I like the fairies in the book better. The ones in the show are okay, too, but a little bit too bizarre for my taste.

I've been thinking about finding a better way to keep you guys updated with the progress of my fanfictions and I've been wanting to open a Tumblr for a while (but I haven't had a real purpose for it yet), so I thought, if you guys are interested in that kind of thing, I could make one for that. :)

Thank you, everyone, for being so patient with me the last couple of months, and for the new Favorite Story additions and Story Alerts! I hope you will enjoy your reading! Reviews are most welcome!

* * *

**Previously on "Coming Out"**

The Cullens as well as Sookie and Jessica had a movie night out. While Sookie headed home with suspicions about the Cullens and what they might be, the Cullens came to the conclusion that Bill Compton's kidnapper must be a Cold One, yet they can't explain why a Cold One would kidnap the classic vampire. Jessica followed the Cullens home after Sookie dropped her off at _Merlotte's_, to find out what they are. The Cullens decided to trust Jessica and exchanged information with her and asked her to get Sookie to talk to them about Bill's kidnapper. Sookie, on the other hand, found an envelope on her porch. Inside, there is a picture of Bill, chained up with silver, and a letter that says: _This is merely a Hello, Miss Stackhouse. I know what you are._

* * *

**Chapter 21: Revelations**

I couldn't believe I was on my way to Eric fucking Northman _AGAIN_.

During my drive to Shreveport, my head spun so heavily, I couldn't think straight. I kept looking at the photograph and the note that were lying on the passenger seat over and over again. I had thought that the message would make me feel terrified and worried but it didn't.

I was just fucking pissed.

Why the hell did all this shit have to happen to me?

What the FUCKING HELL had I done to God that he would punish me this much?

I had always been a faithful Christian and even after the vampire revelation, I had kept my faith, I had gone to church every weekend I was off work. I was a good woman, I realized, I really was and screw every person who thought otherwise.

First, God took my parents, then my grandmother and now, I was so deeply involved in this goddamn vampire business that I wanted to scream.

Which I did, by the way, while I was on my way to the one vampire who I hated the most and who I couldn't get away from, it seemed. I screamed a lot.

By the time I arrived on the _Fangtasia_ parking lot, I was almost literally boiling with rage. Barely able to kill the engine, I scrambled up the photograph and the letter and climbed out of my car, slamming the driver's door shut behind me without bothering to lock it.

Then I stomped up to the entrance where Pam was checking IDs, like on the night I had met her and the motherfucker who had made her. She and the guests who were waiting in line were staring at me, I noticed on the side, when I rushed past her and stormed to Eric's office at the back of the bar, shoving fangbangers and small fish vampires out of the way as I went.

I almost kicked the door open and silenced the vampire in question's "Sookie, what a lovely surprise" by flinging the two items in my hand in his face.

Eric quickly fetched them out of the air as they were falling and looked at them. A deep frown crept over his forehead. "What is this?" he then asked, looking up at me with the most serious expression I had ever seen on him.

I stared at him. "I was about to ask you the same question," I snarled. "Don't the walls in the background, by any coincidence, look like the walls in that little godforsaken dungeon you keep down in the basement or _am I wrong_?"

Both his eyebrows went up. "You honestly think I sent this? More so, that I'm keeping him _here_?"

I could feel my whole body starting to shake with fury. "And _what the fuck_ is 'I know what you are' supposed to mean?"

He looked at me intently. "Sookie, please calm d-"

"Don't you fucking _dare_ tell me to calm down, Eric Northman! I want an explanation!"

The vampire stood up and came around the table, towering over me. He tried to place his hands on my shoulders but I slapped them away, so he let them fall to his sides. "Sookie. Sookie, look at me."

Caught off-guard by the soothing tone of his voice, I looked up and let my eyes meet with his.

"Sookie, I did not send you that message, nor am I keeping Bill a hostage in my basement. And to answer your question, I don't know what the messenger means by writing that he knows what you are. I've been trying to figure out what you are since the night I met you, without success, I'd like to add. You're still a fascinating mystery to me."

Was it just my imagination or was Eric's face slowly coming closer?

"If you would like to check, I can take you to the basement right now," he continued, his blue eyes boring into mine, leaving me unable to move.

And then he was gone and by the door in a flash, holding it open for me, a questioning look on his face.

I took a deep breath to regain my consciousness. Then, in the best way I could come up with, I snapped, "Yes, I would like to check."

The familiar smirk returned to his face. "Please. After you."

I walked past him and headed for the bar. He made no sound behind me but I knew he was following me. Chow hadn't returned from Texas yet, so there was a different vampire serving behind the counter. I stopped at the door to the basement and waited for Eric to unlock it. From the corner of my eye, I could see Pam walk in from the front entrance, looking quite confused.

Eric pushed the door open and stepped through. I quickly followed him and carefully made my way down the stairs in the darkness. I jumped when the light was turned on, but quickly regained my steadiness.

"Wow, I didn't know you had electricity down here," I stated sarcastically. "Been dark, last time I was in here. You know, when you held Lafayette hostage?"

I walked down the last few steps and looked around. Of course there was no Bill down here, or anyone else for that matter. I had known from the beginning that he wouldn't be here but my anger had suppressed my logical thinking during my drive.

"Believe me now?" The soothing part in Eric's voice was still there.

I turned around to look at him. He looked back. "Yes," I said after a moment of hesitation.

"Good," he said and came to stand next to me. "Then I would like to discuss the question that should be running around in both our minds right now and how we're going to answer it."

I nodded slowly. "What the hell am I?"

"And what does what you are have to do with Bill's kidnapping?" he added.

My anger was gone and I could think clearly again. But I also felt drained. And so tired.

I glanced up to the man beside me. I couldn't put my finger on it but Eric was different tonight. And then I realized I was seeing another new side to him; a side similar to the one I had seen on the roof of the hotel in Dallas a couple of weeks ago, moments before Godric had met the sun. I wondered why he was letting me see it or why he having this side on right now, considering the topic of our conversation. Eric had never seemed to care much for Bill.

"So, how do we find out what I am?" I asked him quietly.

He stayed silent for a few seconds. Then his eyes met mine. "By asking the one vampire I should have consulted from the beginning."

I frowned. "And who's that?"

"The Queen of Louisiana."

~x~

"Welcome, Mr Northman," the guard said, keeping a steady face while he waved us through.

Eric didn't pay attention to him but I could feel his stare burning into my cheeks. I shifted and drove through the gate, looking only ahead to the huge mansion that was in front of us. There was a parking lot some ten yards away from the entrance. I pulled my car in one of the spaces and killed the engine. Then I looked at Eric who, unsurprisingly, was scowling at me.

I sighed, unbuckled my seat belt and, after opening the driver's door, got out of the vehicle. Eric did the same on the other side. He had wanted us to take one of his fancy business cars but I had refused because I didn't want to have to come back to _Fangtasia_ when we were done here, so I had forced him to accept me driving in my own car. I would have loved to let him fly and let me have my peace during driving but I hadn't known where the Queen's headquarters were so I had had to let him ride with me.

I let the journey here go into review while he led me up to the door where a man who looked like an agent from "Men in Black" was standing, sunglasses covering his eyes even though it was dark.

Eric and I hadn't talked at all during the drive but the atmosphere had been unbearable. I had opened my window halfway through even though it was freezing outside. He had been staring at me the whole time, giving me directions occasionally while I had kept my eyes fixed on the street.

The man opened the door for us and walked us in, into a beautifully decorated lounge.

"A moment, please, I'll inform the Queen of your presence," he said and vanished behind one of the doors that led to the rest of the house.

I wandered around a bit to look at the antiques while we waited, curious about the Queen. Bill hadn't seemed to be very fond of her, I had noticed when he had gone off to ask for her help about the maenad. It seemed like ages ago now, not a mere couple of weeks.

The man returned a few minutes later and led us to what he called "the Queen's Day Room". I wondered why it was called that until I walked into it. Amazed, I looked around. There were dioramas covering each window, making it look like it was light outside with a beach scene in the background. A long pool was in the middle of the room and around it, there were a few banquettes. Palm trees and orchids made the scenery of a luxurious pool house perfect.

"Well, well, well," a voice rang out from the far right corner of the room. "I didn't expect to see you again so soon, Mr Northman."

Eric was blocking my sight, so I couldn't see her. He started walking around the pool while I tried to keep up with him.

"Your majesty," he called out, his voice in complete business mode. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

"Of course not," the woman's voice responded. She sounded amused.

We rounded the corner of the pool and for the first time, I saw the Queen of Louisiana.

"Oh, you brought me something? You shouldn't have."

She smiled a mocking smile at me, flashing perfectly white teeth surrounded by dark red lipstick. She looked younger than I had thought she would. Younger than Eric; even younger than me. But then again, I thought, who the hell knew what a vampire queen was supposed to look like? Eric didn't fit my mental picture of a sheriff, either.

She was beautiful, I noticed on the side, and, purely going by visuals, she had a lot of class. But she also wasn't hiding that she felt superior to humans, I could feel it by the way she was looking at me.

"Sookie, this is Sophie-Anne Leclerq, the Queen of Louisiana," Eric introduced and then turned to the red-headed vampire. "Your majesty, this is Sookie Stackhouse."

In my old habit, I flashed my nervous smile and extended my hand, offering it to her for a handshake. "It's nice to meet you, your majesty."

"The pleasure is all mine, Sookie." I wasn't surprised when she ignored my hand, so I retrieved it and glanced over her shoulder, only to blush a second later. A blonde woman, with her back to us, was lying on one of the banquettes, covering up her nudeness a little with a thin white blanket. They clearly had been busy before we had arrived.

Sophie-Anne followed my gaze, frowned and walked back to the woman. "What are you hiding for, honey? Why don't you come say hi to your cousin, it's rude not to greet her. There's nothing to be ashamed of, you know the company she keeps herself. You met Eric, and Bill, a while ago, remember?"

I frowned. Had I really just heard what I thought I had? The woman on the banquette grunted and got up, wrapping the blanket completely around her body. Then she turned around to face us.

My jaw dropped. "_Hadley_?"

She smiled a half-hearted smile at me. "Hi, Sookie."

Mouth still hanging open, I turned to Eric. "You _knew_ my cousin is... acquainted with the vampire queen of Louisiana? And Bill knew, too? Why did neither of you tell me?"

He raised his eyebrow. "So you didn't know?"

I started at him in disbelief. "How on earth would I know that my cousin is a vampire queen's _pet_?"

"Hey!" Hadley exclaimed. "That's not fair! You have your acquaintances with vampires and I have mine, what's wrong with that? No one's forcing anything on me!"

"Are you sure?" I asked her, surprised by her defensive stance. "What makes you so sure she doesn't glamour you to do her bidding?" Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Eric and Sophie-Anne exchange amused glances.

"I can't be glamoured, for the same reason you can't be glamoured!" she spat back. "Our blood makes it impossible!"

I fell silent in an instant, taken aback.

"Now it's getting interesting," Eric said and stepped forward.

It took me a few moments to order my thoughts and to calm down. Then I looked back at my cousin and asked, "What do you mean, our blood makes it impossible?"

"Because that's exactly why we're here," Eric added, his eyebrows raised. He looked at me. "Sookie, show her the letter and the picture."

A little reluctant, I pulled both out of my pocket and handed the letter to Hadley and the photo to Sophie-Anne.

"I want to know... no, I _need_ to know what I am," I said calmly.

"How long has Mr Compton been missing?" the queen asked, observing the picture closely.

"About two weeks," I answered.

She looked up and let her eyes wander to Eric. "Why wasn't I informed of this?"

"Because I thought you would hear about it from one bird or the other, anyway, as you usually do," Eric said and bowed his head. "I apologize, your Majesty, I should have told you right away."

"Yes, you should have." She turned her eyes back to the picture in her hands. "Is there anything else I should know?"

Eric and I exchanged glances.

"Well," Eric began, "there's one thing." He quickly summed up everything we knew about Bill's kidnapper.

"_Again_, why wasn't I informed of this earlier, especially about the part where we don't know who, or what, the kidnapper is?" she snarled when he had finished.

"And _again_, I apologize," Eric said calmly.

The queen rolled her eyes and turned her head to me. "Whatever. So, this person, creature, _thing_, whatever it is, knows what you are and you would like to know, too. I suppose your cousin is the reason why Eric thought you would find that answer here?"

I flashed a glare in Eric's direction and nodded. "I suppose it is."

The mocking smile returned to Sophie-Anne's face. "Then why don't you go ahead and tell them, Hadley?"

Hadley hesitated. "I can't," she finally said.

I shook my head in disbelief. "What do you mean, you can't?"

"I can't tell you," she repeated.

I stared at her. "Why not?"

"I promised I wouldn't tell you," she just said.

"Promised who?" was what I wanted to say when suddenly, my cell phone alerted me of a new text message; I had totally forgotten that it was in the pocket of my jacket. Grunting, I turned around and pulled it out to look at the text message. It was from Jessica.

_"Hey, Sookie. Kinda screwed up. Need to talk to you. Come by my house before sunrise if you can. Jessica"_

"Something important?" Sophie-Anne asked.

"It can wait," I said and put the phone back in my pocket.

"Sookie," Eric suddenly said, his voice changed.

I looked at him. "What?"

"I just noticed something," he stated.

I frowned. "What did you notice?"

He took the letter and the photo back, held them up to his nose and inhaled deeply. "I knew it," he finally said. "I knew something didn't really fit, I just didn't notice it until now."

I waited for him to go on. When he didn't, I said, "Well?"

After a few seconds, he continued, "The same kind of creature whose scent we've encountered before wrote this letter but... I think the one who sent it was a human."

"A human?" the queen echoed him and then snatched the letter out of his hand to sniff on it herself. "He's right, a human definitely touched this letter. So, either that someone has a human hostage _or_... a human who works for him or her."

"Which means we can assume that that someone _looks_ human, even if it isn't," Eric concluded.

I nodded. "Which makes it even more urgent to find out what I am," I said. "I know what I can do, maybe it can be of help when we find out _what_ kidnapped Bill and _where_ it took him. So, Hadley," I addressed my cousin, "Who did you promise not to tell me what I am?"

She shook her head. "I'm sorry, I can't tell you." But in her mind, a name slipped out.

"Who's Niall?" I asked her.

Hadley looked shocked. "N-no one," she stuttered. I could feel that she was trying to block me out, so I did the one thing that I only did when I had no other choice; the one thing I hated to do because it ultimately invaded the privacy of someone else's mind in a way that was even more unfair than the pure existence of my gift: I touched her, tearing down every single blockade in her mind.

"Who is Niall?" I asked her again.

She was shaking but her thoughts were clear. _Our great-grandfather_.

I frowned. "Great-grandfather? Whose father is he?"

_Great-uncle Fintan's._

"My grandfather's father? I thought he died before I was born? How can you have talked to him?"

_They live for a very long time. He's a pure-blooded one._

"A pure-blooded _what_?" I exclaimed.

"A pure-blooded fairy," said an unfamiliar voice from behind me.

I let go of Hadley's arms and whirled around. And came face to face with one of the most bizarre, yet lovely men I had ever seen. He looked like he had seen quite a few decades pass but at the same time, he seemed ageless. His long soft hair was of a beautiful shade of pale gold.

"Hello, my dear Sookie," he said to me, flashing a beautiful smile.

"Who are you?" I asked him in perplexity.

"Can't you guess?" It sounded like he was mocking me but his smile stayed completely sincere.

I didn't have to guess. "Niall."

He took a small bow. "At your service." His voice was strange, somewhat… alien.

Which reminded me on the thing he had said first. "What do you mean, pure-blooded fairy?"

"Exactly that," he answered shortly.

I raised an eyebrow. "You mean actual fairy? Glittering, fluttering, winged fairy?"

He chuckled softly. "Well, we don't have wings, as you can see, so we can't really fly, either. We have our ways to travel, though. And about the glitter part, I'd rather call it shining." He held his hand up. A soft glow emitted from it, similar to the light I had used before. _Besides, where did you think your gift came from?_

I almost jumped when I heard his voice in my head. When I recovered from the surprise, I thought to him, _Telepathy is a fairy trait?_

_Among others._

I pondered for a moment. _Are you really my great-grandfather?_

He nodded. _Would you mind if we spoke outside?_

I frowned. _Why?_

_Because the sheriff of Area 5 and the Queen of Louisiana look like they want to attack and eat me any second._

I turned around. Indeed, both vampires seemed extremely tense. And they really had a really hungry look in their stares.

"Sure," I said out loud and followed him out the door to the corridor.

_Let's stick with Telepathy, shall we? They don't have to know everything._

I nodded. _Why are they reacting this way?_

Niall cocked his head. _Because I'm a fairy. The scent of Fae is very appealing to vampires, it's like a drug to them. If they were to start drinking my blood, they literally wouldn't be able to stop. You should have experienced that effect to some extent yourself, haven't you?_

I had. Bill had told me several times how different I smelled to him compared to other humans and how more appealing. Eric had said so, too.

_I don't have much time, Sookie, so if you want to ask me about my race, you should start now_, Niall said.

"Oh." I thought about it for a few seconds. _Well, I guess you could give me the gist._

And so he did. He told me about how vampires nearly had the Fae extinct and how the latter had to leave the human world to live in their own dimension to be safe from the undead.

_Do you have any idea what me being part fairy – god, no offense, but that sounds so lame – could have to do with the kidnapping of a vampire?_ I filled him in about Bill's situation. _I mean, the kidnapper seems to want something from me, something he can only get from a fairy, or someone with fairy blood._

Niall's look turned thoughtful. _Nothing I could think of right now. I will look into it and inform you as soon I can find out anything._ He gently put his hands on my arms._ I have to go now. I shouldn't press my luck with the vampires next door._ He placed a soft kiss on my forehead. _I will see you soon, my dear Sookie._

And within the blink of an eye, he was gone.


	23. Chapter 22: Alliance

**A/N: **Merry Christmas, everyone! Hope you had a wonderful holiday season and got lots of presents! This is my present to you! Enjoy your reading!

* * *

**Chapter 22: Alliance**

My nerves were on edge. Time and time again, my eyes wandered over to the entrance of _Merlotte's_, my heart doing jumping-jacks whenever someone opened the door and came in. So far, none of the people had been the ones I was expecting.

Tapping my right foot impatiently, I looked over to Jessica who was sitting at the bar, a bottle of _TrueBlood_ in her hand out of which she took a sip from time to time. She caught my glance and looked to the bar entrance herself, then turned back to me and shrugged.

I had been less than happy when she had told me that she had told the strange couples from the cinema everything about Bill and me. However, what worried me even more was the secret information she had been hinting at. In some way, though I didn't know how, these people were connected to the case, even though Jessica hadn't wanted to say anything further, only that they were able to help me. That they appeared not to be human, or at least not fully, didn't really add any comfort to the situation.

I jumped when the entrance door was opened, but quickly relaxed when a bunch of guys came in. However, it took my mind only a few seconds to become concerned again. These guys had already been drinking, I could see that in the dizziness of their minds. The men were talking and laughing loudly, heading toward a booth in my section. I groaned inwardly. Nonetheless, I grabbed a few menus and walked over to them.

"Welcome to _Merlotte's_," I said when I arrived at their table and put the menus down in front of them. "What can I getcha?"

_How about a piece of you?_ the guy on my left thought with a smirk on his bearded face.

"We'd like some beers please," the bald guy on my right said. _And you bathing in it_.

I made a sound of disgust and quickly covered it up with the clearing of my throat. "Three beers," I mumbled and scribbled the order down on my small notepad. "Anything else? Sandwiches? Burgers?"

"How about some slice of your beautiful ass?" the dude by the window said, looking me up and down. All three started laughing loudly.

"Excuse me?" I quickly took a step back and looked at them with my fiercest glare. Unfortunately, I quickly got distracted by the thoughts of bearded guy. In his head, he was imagining me in very brief red lingerie, dancing for him like a stripper. It got even more gross when imagination-me sunk on her knees in front of him, unzipping his pants and taking out his dick, only to start sucking on it with moans of delight.

A shiver flashed through me and I couldn't stop my face from mirroring the disgust I felt.

"Aw, come on, don't be shy," window-guy teased. He, too, had very disturbing images in his mind that involved me completely naked in his car.

Bald guy used the opportunity of my state of distraction to lean forward, reaching around me. He probably was trying to grab or slap my bottom but his hand never got that far. I could feel, and hear, something stopping him and gripping his arm tightly. Immediately, bald guy winced. "_Ow_! What the fuck?!"

I whirled around and came face-to-face with Edward. He smiled at me before his face darkened and he pulled bald guy to his feet. Quickly, I stepped aside, so that I wouldn't accidentally collide with either of the men.

"This is no way to treat a lady," Edward growled at bald guy, whose shirt was now trapped by the teenager's fists. "You should apologize."

"Hey, what the _fuck_, dude?!" window guy shouted and scrambled to get out of the booth. He was making a lunge to get his fist into Edward's face when a young blond man about the same age as me, maybe a little younger, stopped him and put him in a choke, but weak enough that he wasn't actually choking him. Bearded guy, before he could even make a move, was stopped from climbing out of the booth by "Uncle Jazz".

A cold hand gently grabbed my arm and pulled me out of harm's way. When I whirled around, I saw that it was Bella, who was smiling brightly at me. I let her pull me back a few feet, far enough that I wouldn't get in the way, should this turn into a large bar fight. The banging of footsteps erupted from direction of the kitchen and a moment later, Sam, Lafayette and Terry Bellefleur all entered the room in a haste.

"What the fuck is going on here?!" Sam yelled and looked back and forth between the six men.

Now that I studied the picture in front of me with more awareness, I noticed a few things.

First, even though the drunk guys were quite a bit larger than the three young men, Edward and the others didn't seem to have any difficulties restraining them.

Second, after taking a long look at Bella and comparing her to the picture of her in Jacob's head once again, I realized that something about her and the others didn't seem right. Their skin color looked a little unnatural. It had about the color of a normal human being, but something was off. Something in the way the bar lights were reflected on their skin made me believe that this flushed color was not natural for them. Also, even though Bella's eyes were brown, it was a different brown than the one I had seen in Jacob's head.

And third, even though I had been able to in the cinema, I couldn't hear a single thought coming from Bella now. Her mind was completely shut down.

"These gentlemen have been disturbing Miss Stackhouse with improper behavior," the blond man whose name I didn't know told Sam.

Sam turned to me and asked, "Is that true?"

I nodded. Jessica stepped up to me and added, "I can confirm that, Sam, I saw it, too."

"Hm, hm," Lafayette hemmed and looked at the three guys with raised eyebrows. "Then I'd suggest you hookahs get yo' dirty asses outta here. An' don' make me say it twice."

Terry Bellefleur walked over to Edward to help him escort bald guy out of the bar, even though I was a hundred percent sure that Edward was perfectly capable of handling the man by himself. "Uncle Jazz" and the blond man followed them with bearded guy and window guy.

"Are you okay, Sookie?" Jessica asked me with a half-worried look on her face.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I assured her and turned to Bella. "We haven't had a chance to introduce ourselves, have we? My name is Sookie Stackhouse." I held out my hand and was surprised when she took it. Her hand was still very cold. Ice-cold to be exact. When she had pulled me back, I had been able to feel the low temperature through the fabric of my uniform sleeves. "That cold outside?" I added casually, with my mind wary.

"Freezing," she nodded and shook my hand, only to quickly let go of it. "My name is Bella. Bella Swan," she introduced herself.

"Nice to meet ya," I said with my most beaming smile. My nervous smile, I realized. "Did you find your way okay?"

She nodded. "Yes, no problem."

Turning to Jessica, she stated, "Nice to see you again, Jessica."

"You, too, Bella," Jessica said, looking back and forth between us nervously. When the men came back in, however, she seemed to calm down very quickly, although she threw a suspicious glance to "Uncle Jazz". "Well, I'll be at the bar if you need me."

"Okay." I looked after her with caution, not knowing what to make of her reaction to the four people I had been expecting for the past half hour.

Lafayette and Terry returned to the kitchen. Only after throwing suspicious glances at Bella, Edward and the others, did Sam follow them. He, too, seemed to have smelled something odd about them, like Jessica had. He always was making this funny face when his nose sniffed the air.

"Good evening, Miss Stackhouse," the blond man said after approaching me and held out his hand. "My name is Carlisle Cullen. You can call me Carlisle."

I shook his hand.

"Bella already introduced herself, I take it? Of course you also know Edward?" Carlisle looked at me questioningly.

"Edward Masen," Edward added and then pointed to "Uncle Jazz". "This is my uncle, Jasper Whitlock."

"Nice to meet y'all," I said, my nervous smile still in place.

"Can we borrow a few minutes of your time or are you too busy?" Carlisle asked. He very clearly seemed to be the spokesperson.

I took a look around. I had told Sam that I would be expecting guests who wanted to talk to me about Bill and that it would probably take a while to sort it out. He had told me that he was fine with it as long as I checked in with new guests. Thankfully, Arlene had offered to take them off me as long as I was busy with my appointment.

Arlene was waiting a table near the billiard table. When she looked up, I signaled her that my guests had arrived. She gave me a thumbs-up.

"Alright then," I said and led Mr Cullen and the others to one of the tables in the middle of the bar room. Five chairs scraped while we took a seat.

"So," I began when everyone was settled in. "Um, do you want me to get you anything? Drinks? Something to eat?"

"No, we're good, thank you," Edward replied and smiled.

"Alrighty then." I cleared my throat. "Did Jessica give you the address of the restaurant where Bill disappeared?"

"Yes, she did," Carlisle answered, nodding. "We were there yesterday and looked at it."

Curiosity took over my mind. "Did you find anything?"

The faces of the four young people darkened. The more I studied their skin tones, the more I felt confident that it was fake. Their real skin tones had to be a lot paler. And, now that I saw them up close, Edward's and Carlisle's eyes colors also looked a little unnatural. The green of Edward's eyes was not of the color humans with green eyes usually had. It was less less transparent and illuminating and more strong and saturated. And a little darker. The same went for Carlisle's blue eyes. They looked like he was wearing colored contacts. Very well painted blue contacts; but contacts nonetheless. Bella's and Jasper's eye colors were of the same brown.

I still wasn't able to hear Bella's thoughts. I was about to ask her about it when the curtain guarding her mind was dropped. Behind it, her mind was focused on the color of my uniform and then settled on innocently examining me, trying to figure out what to think of me.

"We had a good look around," Jasper answered in Carlisle's stead and flashed me a wry smile. His thoughts, too, were concentrating on what kind of impression I was making. It seemed like he was a little fascinated, if I got his thoughts right. The reception was still very fuzzy. When I looked at Edward, however, I knew exactly that he was as fascinated by me as I was by him. I hadn't met any other telepaths besides Barry, so having someone like me around was beyond interesting to me.

I considered starting a telepathic conversation with him (communicating without speaking had become something fun, I had discovered in Texas), but there were more important things to discuss here. Edward smiled brightly when he decoded my vibe. Jasper also seemed to have gotten a hold of what I was thinking, though he didn't seem entirely sure what it was about.

"Find anything that might help the investigation?" I asked further.

They exchanged glances.

"Well," Carlisle began. "Yes. We have found out something very important."

I was immediately more alert. "What is it, what did you find out?"

"Before we tell you," Carlisle continued hesitantly, "there is something we have to tell you. About vampires."

"So it _was_ vampires?" I frowned. "But Alcide said the smell was not exactly vampire, only very similar."

The blond man cocked his head. "And he's right. Technically."

"What do you mean, _technically_?" I looked at him with suspicion.

_Jessica told you a little about us, did she not?_ Carlisle thought to me.

I jumped a little when I heard him addressing me directly in my head. Unsure how to answer, I looked at Edward.

_Give your answer to me, I can forward it to him_, he thought.

After gathering the information I had about these people at the back of my mind, I thought to him, _She said you're not human, that you're different. But she didn't tell me in what way._ I let my thoughts wander back to the moment in front of the movie theater. _She said she wasn't sure if you smelled the same or similar to the smell in the restaurant. However, I have a feeling that you do._

"But," I continued out loud, "even if you're similar to the ones who kidnapped Bill, it doesn't necessarily mean that I should automatically suspect you to be the culprits. After all, there was also that incident at _Fangtasia_, with those two vamps killed right on the doorstep of the bar. Pam said there were fo-"

A sudden cold washed over me when a memory hit me. A memory of what Pam had said that night. "_They were four. Three men, one woman. From what I could see, the woman was brunette, two of the men were blond. I couldn't see the third well enough._"

My eyes wandered from Bella's brown hair over Edward to Carlisle's and Jasper's blond hair. My entire body froze.

"Oh," Edward mouthed when he read my mind. "Miss Stackhouse..."

I pushed my chair back and jumped to my feet. "I need air," I breathed and headed toward the hallway.

Sam was standing there, his arms crossed. When he saw the look on my face, he pulled me aside. "Hey, are you okay? Did they do something?"

I shook my head. "No. I just need to step out for a minute. I'll ... I'll be right back."

"Take your time," he said and turned his eyes back to where the Cullens were still looking after me.

In a hurried pace, I walked down the hallway to the back door and stepped outside. When my lungs started filled with the cold winter air, I slowly calmed. I tried to get my mind in order. So, everything led to the suspicion that Mr Cullen and the others were the ones who had killed the two vamps at _Fangtasia_. Question now was, what was I to make of that? What did that mean?

_Miss Stackhouse?_ Edward's voice rung out in my head.

I groaned. _What?_

_Don't panic, we're coming around the corner_, his mental voice told me. _Tell me when you're ready. We will tell you everything._

After breathing out a heavy sigh, I placed my gaze on the corner of the small building. _Okay_.

When they flashed around the corner in a speed I only ever saw on vampires, I couldn't help my surprised jump. A low gasp escaped my lips before I could stop myself. Jessica was with them, I saw. Quickly, she raced to my side.

"They're not gonna hurt you," she assured me. "I'm just here for mental support."

My head started buzzing with countless questions.

"Not so fast," Edward chuckled at my thoughts. "We should start at the beginning, shouldn't we? Start with the first question."

"What in the seven hells are you?" I asked without hesitation.

What followed took me quite a few minutes to absorb. They were vampires, but different from the vampires I knew. They were impossible to kill by humans, only creatures of their own kind and some of the two-natured were able to destroy them. Similar to my vampires, they also were able to develop extraordinary abilities, though mind reading, seeing the future and such were something a lot more advanced than the simple ability to fly. Their appearances were also different. Confirming my suspicion about spray tan, they also had pale skin, though their skin reflected light in a different way. For some reason, they didn't have fangs but their teeth were razor-sharp and able to pierce through almost anything. Sunlight was no threat, as well as all the other things that threatened or killed my vampires, like crosses, stakes and such.

"Don't forget the sparkling part," Jessica cut in teasingly. "God, I wish I could see that."

"The sparkling part isn't important," Jasper said with an amused look.

"Is, too!" my friend demanded and turned to me. "Their skin sparkles in the sunlight. I do wonder why that is. Maybe they were fairies in their past lives."

I broke out in a giggle. "That's funny," I breathed. "Considering..." _Considering that I'm part fairy_.

Edward's eyes widened. "You're _part fairy_?"

"_What?_" Jessica gasped.

"Yeah, I know, it's pretty lame, huh," I shrugged, blushing with embarrassment. "Only found out yesterday." I filled them in about the letter and what I had found out from the queen and Niall.

"Do you have that photo and the letter with you?" Carlisle asked when I finished.

I nodded. "They're on my shelf in Sam's office."

"I'll go get them," Jessica said and vanished through the back door. Half a minute later, she returned and handed Carlisle the items. "Sam told me that if you're too upset, you can take the rest of the evening off," she said to me. "Business doesn't seem to get much thicker tonight. Arlene and the other waitress should be able to handle it."

"You might want to accept that offer." Carlisle's voice sounded grim. His eyes were glued on the writing from the letter.

From one second to another, the minds of all four cold ones shut down from my abilities. My eyes jumped to Bella, my mind knowing that it was her doing. They had told me about her mind shielding ability. "What's wrong?" I asked impatiently.

"Are you sure?" Edward asked, his eyes fixed on Carlisle. Looked like he was still able to hear the older man's thoughts.

"Not entirely sure, no," Carlisle replied, his gaze still on the handwriting. "But it looks very familiar."

I knew that vampires were able to speak in such a low volume that human hears weren't able to pick up what was being said. That the "cold ones" chose to talk to each other in a way where I could hear them told me that they weren't trying to completely shut me out. Only that they were withholding something from me.

"This is not the right place to discuss this," Carlisle finally said and looked up. "Miss Stackhouse, would you mind coming with us to our house? We need to discuss this with my whole family."

I frowned. The thought of riding to Shreveport with four vampires I could do no shit against, should they attack me (drinking bunny blood or not), and who I barely knew didn't sit very comfortably with me. Unfortunately, I had a feeling that I had no choice but to trust them.

"Can I ride in my own car?" I asked out of curiosity.

Four chuckles erupted.

"I assume that means no. Why not?"

"Maybe we should let her," Bella suggested to the others with a smile. "I can still remember your driving from a human perspective. Not very well the visual part but when I concentrate really hard, I can still feel an echo of anxiety."

Well, that didn't sound very reassuring.

"I'm sorry, Miss Stackhouse," Edward stated sympathetically. "But riding with us will be a lot faster. Maybe Jessica can drive your car home, then we can just drive you home afterwards, without you having to pick up your car first."

I looked at Jessica. "You're sure I can trust them?"

"At least more than other vampires," she shrugged.

I raised an eyebrow. "Good point."

"We'll wait for you in front of the entrance," Carlisle said and the four "cold ones" turned around and sped across the parking lot into the darkness.

With a deep, I went back inside with Jessica on my heels. Sam was in his office when I entered it to get my purse.

"Going home?" he asked me.

"Not exactly," I said. "Are you sure it's okay if I leave?"

"Yeah, sure," he reassured me. "I might even close up earlier today."

Carlisle had taken the letter and given me back the photo, which I put back in my purse when I got it from my shelf.

"Thanks, Sam." I smiled at him. "Good night."

"Good night, Sookie," he answered and waved at me.

Jessica was waiting outside of the office. After rummaging in my purse, I found my car keys and handed them to her. "You really don't mind?"

"No problem," she said. "Good thing that we're neighbors."

I nodded. "Yeah. Thank you."

We separated in the bar room where I waved goodbye to Arlene and Tara before I stepped out of the bar back into the night. Two very fancy cars were parked outside with running engines. One was a black Mercedes, the other a silver Volvo. Jasper sat at the wheel of the Mercedes, Edward was the driver of the Volvo. While Bella was with Edward, the two blond men shared a car. Carlisle's eyes were lowered, to a point in front of him. He was probably still looking at the letter.

"You can ride with us," Bella called out of the passenger window of the Volvo.

Pushing all hesitation aside, I walked up to the silver vehicle and climbed in. The second I closed the car door, Edward stepped on the gas and the car shot forward.

"Woah!" I shouted, hurriedly grabbing the seatbelt. It took me several attempts until I was safely buckled up. By the time the buckle snapped shut we had left the parking lot and were speeding down the street toward the highway. Edward was driving at about double the speed that was allowed. I really hoped we wouldn't run into any cops. Especially ones that knew me.

We didn't speak at first. After a while, I noticed that Bella had retracted her shield from Edward and I was able to hear him again. In my thoughts, I asked him a little about himself, where he was from, how old he was and so on. He didn't tell me much, only that he was from Chicago, that he had been turned early in the last century and that he and Bella were together. And that the whole first-date-thing had been staged for any citizens of Renard Parish that might care about them.

We made it to Shreveport in record time, which didn't surprise me, considering the driving speed. We had fallen into a (pleasant) silence when we drove down the street to their house. They lived in a very nice neighborhood, with a lot of families. While Jasper and Carlisle pulled up in the drive-way, we drove past the house toward a large apartment building down the street.

"We're parking the car at my house," Edward explained as he drove down the ramp into the underground garage. "We don't need the neighbors to know how close we all really are."

My short anxiety vanished. We got out of the car and then left the underground parking lot after Edward had locked the car doors. The walk toward the house only took a few minutes in my speed.

Suddenly, we were just walking up to the front porch, Edward made a face and said, "Oh, dear."

"What is it?" Bella asked. He threw her a look which she seemed to understand after she sniffed the air. "Oh, crap. I hope she's not going to throw a tantrum."

I looked back and forth between them questioningly and tried to find out what was going on by looking into Edward's head. I didn't get a clear picture first, but then I saw a person in his mind. It was a young woman - an extremely beautiful woman - with long wavy blond hair, golden eyes, pale skin and a very stern look on her face.

"Who's that?" I asked Edward, knowing he'd noticed me peeking into his thoughts.

The slightly grim answer came from both vampires simultaneously.

"Rosalie."

* * *

**Next _Coming Out_ Chapter**

**"Epiphany"**


	24. Chapter 23: Epiphany

**A/N: **I know, I'm the worst fanfiction-updater in the world, I'm so sorry! Also, I know this chapter isn't as long as the last couple of chapters but from here on, we're getting closer and closer to the showdown. I don't know yet how many more chapters this FF will have (probably in the neighborhood of 6 to 10).

Reasons why I didn't update in over half a year: the finishing and revision of my NaNoWriMo novel (which is available for reading on Wattpad; check the link on my profile page), college (as usual) and (you guessed it) procrastination. I hope you all can forgive me for not updating for super-long (again) and haven't grown tired of this fanfiction yet. I wish time wasn't in such a hurry to pass (like, it's July already, where the hell did the last 7 months go?). I really, really hope you will enjoy this chapter and that you're still looking forward to what's in store next (and if you're not, I can't blame you; believe me, I feel really bad whenever I don't update in an eternity).

* * *

**Previously on ****_Coming Out_**

_After Jessica finding out what the Cullens are and Sookie meeting Niall, her fairy great-grandfather, a meeting was arranged between Sookie, Carlisle, Jasper, Edward and Bella where they exchanged some information and Sookie noticed that it was them who killed the two vampires at Fangtasia. The Cullens had no choice but to tell her what they are. Sookie showed them the letter and the picture she had received and Carlisle seemed to have noticed something about the handwriting in the letter. They invited Sookie to come to their house to discuss more about Bill's kidnapper. However, when Sookie arrives at the Cullen house with Edward and Bella, it turns out that Rosalie has decided to drop in for a visit._

* * *

**Chapter 23:Epiphany**

Rosalie's eyes narrowed, the second they spotted Sookie. She looked furious. Her arms were crossed and her left foot was tapping up and down on the floor, something I usually only saw humans do.

"So," Rose said, with the same tone in her voice she had used when we had been introduced for the first time, "another discovery by a human."

"Be fair, Rose," Edward said and frowned.

"Need I remind you what the Volturi said about us being and _staying_ a secret?" She raised an eyebrow. "_Specifically_ from humans?"

Emmett, who was standing a few feet behind her, chuckled. "Come on, Rose, we still don't know the whole story, we just came back. Hey, Edward, Bella."

"Hey, Emmett," I said and smiled at him.

The giant vampire came around his wave and stopped in front of Sookie, slouching down a little like he wanted to get a closer look at her, even though he could see her perfectly from where he was. "You must be Miss Stackhouse," he finally said and grinned. "I'm Emmett, nice to meet you." He extended a hand toward her.

Sookie, who had been leaning back a little bit with an uncertain look on her face, seemed surprised at the act of courtesy and hesitantly took his hand. "Sookie," she replied, looking down on their shaking hands, probably a little uncomfortable with the coldness of Emmett's skin. "Nice to meet ya, too."

"So what is this exactly?" Rosalie demanded, straight back to business after she had curtly nodded at Sookie. "What is she doing here and why do we need her?"

"Rose," I reprimanded. "_Manners_."

The blonde vampire rolled her eyes while Renesmee stepped forward. "Let me," she said. Rosalie willingly accepted my daughter's hand on her cheek and let her show her what we knew so far. Sookie watched them with obvious confusion. After a while she asked, "Who are the Volturi?"

Carlisle turned to her to answer but Renesmee was faster. Sookie jumped and almost receded when my daughter was suddenly in front of her.

"Don't worry," Renesmee said sweetly. "It doesn't hurt." She held her hand out in front of her and signaled Sookie to take it. When the older woman looked at me, I nodded. She jumped again when their skins touched. Amazement spread over her face while Nessie explained to her — probably in pictures — who the Volturi were.

"Well, they don't seem very nice," she concluded after Nessie had let go of her hand. "And they're three thousand years old, you say?"

We all nodded.

She whistled through her teeth. "The oldest vampire I knew was two thousand years old. And here I thought that would be the oldest one I'd ever meet."

I frowned. "Was?"

"He met the sun a few weeks ago," Edward told me, getting the info out of Sookie's head. I nodded slowly. "Oh."

Esme stepped forward. "It's nice to meet you, Sookie," she said and smiled brightly, extending her hand to the woman that was about the same age as her physical age. "My name is Esme."

Sookie smiled back and shook her hand. "Nice to meet you, too, Esme."

Then Alice hopped forward. "I'm Alice," she introduced herself and pulled Sookie into a hug which the blonde hesitantly returned. Then she pulled back and gestured to Rosalie. "This is Rosalie, my sometimes grumpy sister."

"And I'm Renesmee," my daughter introduced herself.

Sookie giggled at little bit. "That's funny. Esme. Renesmee. Are the names a coincidence?"

I shook my head. "I named her after Esme and my mother, Renée. Her middle name is a mixture between Carlisle and my dad's name Charlie, Carlie."

She frowned. "Named her?" She turned her head to Edward, who seemed to telepathically speak to her. "Oh!" she finally exclaimed. "She's your _biological_ daughter?"

"Yeah." I was used to being asked this question whenever we told the fact to someone by now.

All of a sudden, Carlisle slapped his palm to his forehead. "Of course!"

The rest of us turned around, confused. Edward narrowed his eyes. "Are you sure? That's quite a heavy accusation."

"Why would he do that?" Sookie asked, being on the same page as my husband. "He's thousands of miles away, how has he even _heard_ of me?"

"What's wrong?" Esme demanded.

"Carlisle recognized the handwriting," Edward answered.

Carlisle slightly shook his head. "I can't believe I didn't recognize it before. I've seen it plenty of times during my time with them."

"Whose handwriting do you think it is?" I asked impatiently.

Edward looked at me but it was Carlisle who answered. "Marcus'."

"_Marcus_?" I repeated. "Are you sure?"

"Which one was Marcus?" Sookie asked Renesmee and my daughter showed her a picture of him. "What's his story?" she then asked further.

Carlisle told him the gist of Marcus' life story, from his meeting with Aro, how they had decided to stay together, how he had fallen in love with Aro's sister Didyme, how Didyme had died and how he had been spending his time in eternal grief ever since.

"What does he want with me?" the blonde human pondered. "And what does that have to do with me being part-fairy?"

Renesmee's eyes widened and I remembered that Carlisle probably hadn't had time to explain our newest discovery because of Rosalie's and Emmett's arrival. We quickly filled her and the others in about Sookie's fairy great-grandfather and Sookie filled in the blanks.

"I wish I knew why he's doing this," she mumbled after we'd all finished.

Jasper looked at Alice. "Have you been able to see anything?"

She shook her head. "Nothing clear yet. I suppose Marcus hasn't decided yet what he wants to do exactly, or at least is trying not to. Who knows? Maybe he knows we're here?"

"Well, whatever his decision," Carlisle continued, "if we're right, that means Mr Compton is in Volterra."

"Do you think Aro and Caius know about this?" Esme wondered.

He shrugged. "I don't know but I doubt it. Aro would never allow this — not under these circumstances, not with these motives, whatever they are."

Sookie _tss_ed. "And you can bet I will find out what they are."

My husband's body froze. "Oh, no, no, no," he said through clenched teeth. "No way. You're _not_ going to Italy."

"_Excuse me_?" She looked at him unbelievingly and pushed one of her hands into her side. "I can go wherever the hell I please. I'm going to get my fiancé, whether you lot like it or not."

We all looked at Alice. She shook her head. "I still don't see her. Though I have a feeling we're going with her."

"Not all of us, though," Carlisle made clear. "I will go, Aro knows me the longest. Edward and Alice will come, too, I don't want to walk into any surprises. Bella, you're to protect Sookie from Aro's, Jane's and Alec's abilities. Your power, Jasper, might come in handy as well. The rest will stay here."

"No way!" Renesmee protested. "I'm coming with you this time! And before you say no," she added, "I'm a lot more useful now. I've been practicing a lot."

"Practicing what?" I asked.

My daughter closed her eyes and seemed to concentrate strongly. After a few seconds, to my complete shock, her voice rang out in my head, "_I can project my power now, Mom, like you._"

I gaped at her. She walked over to her father and grabbed his hand. "_And better yet_," she continued. "_I can transmit all the thoughts within my cloak with Dad's help._"

The rest of my family, apart from Edward, widened their eyes in awe, without a doubt hearing her, too. Edward looked at me and smiled brightly. "She's amazing, isn't she?"

"That way," Nessie finally said out loud, "we can talk to each other without the Volturi being able to hear us."

For a moment it was completely silent, if you didn't count Nessie's and Sookie's heartbeats.

"That's," Carlisle finally said, "that's incredible. How long can you do it?"

She pulled her mouth into a slight pout. "Not too long at a time. But short messages here and there are no problem. I've been playing around with it for about two years, mostly with Jake, whenever we were in Forks. A few times with Dad, too, and Grandpa Charlie."

"You _knew_ she could do this?" I asked my husband incredulously. He nodded. "She wanted to keep it a secret, so she could surprise you when she was good enough at it."

"So I can come, right?" Renesmee concluded, satisfied that the surprise had worked out perfectly. We exchanged glances. Carlisle shrugged. "It's your decision, not mine. You're her parents."

Edward and I looked at each other and knew exactly what the other one was thinking, even though we couldn't hear each other's thoughts. The level-up of Renesmee's ability would definitely be an advantage, there was no doubt regarding that. However, neither of us were very fond of the idea of our daughter walking into the Volturi headquarters, protected or not. Still, she might become crucially useful.

Alice sighed, in the way where we all knew what was happening — the future had settled, the decision had been made.

"Alright," I said. "You can come with us."

She beamed at me. "Great! So, when are we departing?"

"That depends on Miss Stackhouse, I suppose," Carlisle said and looked at the blonde woman. "When do you want to leave?"

"As soon as possible," she promptly replied. "Tomorrow morning? If we can get a flight on such short notice?"

"That shouldn't be a problem," Carlisle reassured her and pulled his cell phone out of his pants pocket to punch in a series of digits. He walked out of the room so not to disturb our discussion, letting a few strings play so that we could get flights from Shreveport to Atlanta, from Atlanta to Rome and from Rome to Florence, starting tomorrow morning at 11am.

"Do you have a passport?" I asked Sookie. She nodded.

"I'll call Seth and Jake, so they'll know," Renesmee said and went outside to talk to them on the phone.

Carlisle, who had just come back in, said, "We have flights for tomorrow at 11.05am in Shreveport, business class until Atlanta, from there it's First Class."

"_First Class_?" Sookie choked out and gaped at him. "I got some good money for my work for Eric, but not so much that I can afford First Class."

"Don't worry, Miss Stackhouse, we got it covered," Carlisle assured her and smiled at her. "You don't have to pay us back, it's alright."

"Oh no, I'll definitely pay you back, even if it takes me ten years of working," she protested. "I don't like being in debt. To anyone." She nodded determinedly. "Alright then. How's it gonna go? Do I drive to the airport myself — honestly, I don't like the idea of leaving my car there — or will you pick me up?" She looked unsure whether she should put us through that trouble.

"Bella and I will pick you up at eight," Edward answered and added, "Speaking of which, we better drive you home so you can pack and make arrangements."

"Yes," Sookie said and nodded, looking around the faces of my family. "Guess I'll see most of you tomorrow then."

She and the others exchanged goodbyes and then we were out the door, making sure no one was looking when we climbed into Carlisle's car. Half-way up the street, we stopped because Jake and Seth were coming from the other direction in Mr Herveaux's truck.

"Hey, Miss Stackhouse," Jake greeted mine and Edward's passenger when pulled to a halt driver's-door-to-driver's-door. Then he turned to my husband. "Driving her home?"

We nodded. "Why are you driving to the house?" I asked.

"Nessie asked us to come over to fill us in with everything," Seth said. "We'll see you guys after you come back from Italy, I suppose?"

"Probably," Edward confirmed and shifted gears. "You can check in with Esme the day after tomorrow, we'll probably have called her by then."

"'kay," Jake nodded and shifted gears also. "See ya. Bye, Miss Stackhouse."

Both cars accelerated and we were off.


End file.
